Coronavirus, murder hornets, and now swarms of cicadas. Friends, we have officially entered the next level of Jumanji-esque strangeness. Except that this is real life.

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2020 started with a worldwide pandemic that brought with it symptoms that ranged from the loss of taste and/or smell, diarrhea, and lesions to delirium, happy hypoxia, and blood clotting issues. Then, we were told that giant hornets that kill up to 50 people every year in Asia had found their way to the United States. "Murder Hornets" is what we were told to call them because that's not an intimidating name or anything.

And now, we’re being told to brace ourselves because cicadas will soon emerge from the ground where they’ve been hanging out for the last 17 years and they’re going to come out with a full-on alien-sounding wail.

I don’t know about you, but I’m not even about to ask what’s next because I don’t want to know. Plague, Armageddon, rapture. Listen, we’re told "But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father,” but a person can’t help but wonder what lies ahead of all this craziness we’ve already experienced.

Anyway, back to the cicadas. When we say the cicadas are coming, we don't mean the couple here and there that we hear from time to time during the summer. We're talking about the cicadas that have been living and thriving underground for the last 17 years. These suckers will emerge as though some invisible magnet has pulled them to the surface.

Once the cicadas emerge (by the millions, by the way), they'll cling to tree trunks and limbs. They'll flock at night to lit sidewalks, and cling to the walls of well-lit structures.  Then, they'll shed their shell with newly formed wings. Yes, these buggers can fly, although not well. For the next four weeks after emerging, the alien-sounding wail of the male cicada will be heard as he tries to find a lady friend to mate with.

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And then, just when you've grown used to the loud wailing sound and bugs clinging to everything around you, they will mostly all be gone, leaving behind their eggs which will hatch a couple of months later, burrow down into the ground, and begin the process all over again.

The good news is that unless you live in or are planning to visit Virginia, West Virginia, or North Carolina, you probably won't have to deal with insane swarms of cicadas because the emergence will take place in the greatest numbers in those states.

We'll take whatever good news we can get in the middle of all this weirdness, right?

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