Cicadas are huge flying bugs that come up out of the ground for one month every 17 years. According to several cicada websites I've visited there are about twenty different breeds of cicadas that emerge in different parts of the country in different years, but the breed that comes to Maryland is the biggest. Yeah, I'm lucky like that. They say that there are BILLIONS of cicadas. Billions. Ecchh.

Because I live in an old apartment building that is surrounded by trees, the cicadas are particularly bad where I live. My apartment has an open stairwell, and when I come home from work at night they are lining the walls of the building, all over the ground, buzzing around. It's so creepy. I'm not afraid of bugs, but their sheer mass is unnerving. The only thing you can do is get your keys in your hand in the car and sprint towards your front door while they run into you and buzz all around you. It's like being on an episode of Fear Factor.

Every morning I've had to sweep at least a hundred dead cicadas out of our stairwell. And if you look down the steps at the first floor, the people who live underground, it's especially creepy. They don't have anywhere to sweep, so the bugs just stay there. Literally piles of bugs. Yesterday maintenance came out and shoveled some and sucked the rest up with a shop vac.

My parents live in a neighborhood that was built after the last cicada invasion, so they don't have too many. Matt, my former roommate, lives in the city with no grass and no trees, so he hasn't seen one where he lives.

I guess I just lucked out.