Whoopsadaisie!

I am getting married May 26th in Northern Illinois. Outdoors. In a wooded conservation area. With a backyard reception. This is the map of the 2007 group of 17-year cicadas.

V is actually really excited by this. As long as one doesn't fall on me during the ceremony and I can avoid stepping on them (which is probably impossible), I will be fine too. You'd think biologists would have thought to look into this!

According to James Schuster, U of I Extension horticulture educator, Brood XIII "has a reputation for the largest emergence of cicadas known anywhere," said Schuster. "During the 1956 emergence, they counted an average of 311 nymphal emergence holes per square yard of ground in a forested floodplain near Chicago. This translates to one and a half million cicadas per acre. In upland sites, they recorded 27 emergence holes per square yard, translating to about 133,000 per acre. This number is more typical of emergence numbers but is still a tremendous number of insects."

I don't think I'll have enough favors for all these uninvited guests...