I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

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  • pip57
    pip57 Member Posts: 12,401
    edited July 2011

    Our Canadian frogs sing.  They are quite loud too.  They start like clockwork around 8:00 every night and continue until dawn.  It is actually quite melodic. 

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited July 2011

    we call the little singing frogs we hear in the Spring around here - peepers.  And BOY, are they delightfully loud!!!!!

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  • 1Athena1
    1Athena1 Member Posts: 6,696
    edited July 2011

    I love frogs - singing or not. I just love them.

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  • Bren-2007
    Bren-2007 Member Posts: 6,241
    edited July 2011

    We have some kind of barking frog here .. and boy are they noisy!

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  • 1Athena1
    1Athena1 Member Posts: 6,696
    edited July 2011

    Bren, I wish I could hear frogs from here. That's not a sound you will get in the middle of a city, unfortunately - even where there are trees and parks, as in my neck of the city.

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  • crazy4carrots
    crazy4carrots Member Posts: 5,324
    edited July 2011

    Gee Pip -- I guess my frogs here really ARE shy!  Glad we don't have Bren's barking frogs!

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  • pip57
    pip57 Member Posts: 12,401
    edited July 2011

    Speaking about the disappearance of bees, has anyone else here noticed the bat situation.  I was saying to my dh that we have no bats this year which is extremely unusual.  Apparently they are being wiped out by a fungus when they hibernate south during the winter.  This could be more bad news for our eco system.

     http://www.fort.usgs.gov/wns/

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  • Alpal
    Alpal Member Posts: 1,785
    edited July 2011

    Ribbit, ribbit. I love frogs, too. Especially their legs!

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  • 1Athena1
    1Athena1 Member Posts: 6,696
    edited July 2011
    I am afraid of bats, though. So, Pip, if I "notice" any "bat situation" I will scream. Laughing
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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited July 2011

    Bren - think you may have a bull frog?????

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  • crazy4carrots
    crazy4carrots Member Posts: 5,324
    edited July 2011
    Does bat-sh*t crazy count?  I could tell you about a few!
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  • pip57
    pip57 Member Posts: 12,401
    edited July 2011

    Believe me Athena, I went running for cover as soon as they appeared!  Bats and mice terrify me.  

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  • leggo
    leggo Member Posts: 3,293
    edited October 2012

    Seems like all the frogs, bees, bats have moved to the prairies. We've hardly had any here in the past twenty years. All of a sudden I can't sleep because of the racket the frogs are making and can't sit outside because of all the bees and bats. Wierd....in my lifetime here, I've maybe seen one or two bats. This year the sky is full of them.

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  • Alpal
    Alpal Member Posts: 1,785
    edited July 2011

    Bats are protected. Yeech! Just rodents with wings and I am rodent phobic.

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  • ritaz
    ritaz Member Posts: 186
    edited July 2011

    Yes, CS here in the northeast they are called peepers...I listen for them every spring because then I know that spring has really arrived...There's a little stream that goes thru my property and there is some loud mouth frog that has his/her say every night...It's a good thing the dog is old and deaf because I think she'd be barking at it...

    I've seen bats around here - which is good, because with all the rain we got in May and June we are having a bumper crop of mosquito's! And bats just LOVE mosquitos...  And the type of mosquitos that carry encephalitis are 3 weeks early - oh joy...

    I'm about 8 weeks out of radiation and for some reason, I really haven't been bothered by the little pests...So between not shaving that armpit and not eaten by mosquitos I see a bit of a silver lining in having had rads...(how's that for a positive attitude?) lol

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited July 2011

    pip

    white nose fungus on bats is VERY serious in MA - lots of the caves are empty.  Sorry, Alpal, but without bats we'd have a LOT LOT LOT more Mosquitoes....yuck!

    I adore frogs, have different ones all over my house - my FAVORITE is a Frog DOing YOGA ;) On the table when I paint, draw....

    Also, I like some snakes - had a baby milk snake in my garden, about 7 inches, she ( must have been a she, she winked at me ;) let me hold her - so cute.  When they are bigger, which I hope she becomes, they eat mice, who are very happy in my cellar during the summer - but make me crazy when they get in the walls in the winter - skritch, skritch, skritch.  No, don't suggest it, sadly, I'm allergic Big Time to cats.

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  • sewingnut
    sewingnut Member Posts: 1,129
    edited July 2011

    Ritaz,

    I grew up in western Pa and we also called the frogs peepers.  I love the sound at night with all the windows open. We live in the country and it is so relaxing. Bats, not so fond o,f especially when fishing and they swoop down for the mosquitos on the lake.

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited July 2011

    ritaz - yeah, but a least they get the skeeters, b4 the skeeters get you ;)  I too LOVE the sound of peepers.  When I lived in Washington DC - I had the good fortune?  to be there during 2 of the cycles of Cicadas.  NowTHAT is a noise.  Once, I really though there was a chain saw being used on the big oak tree on my front lawn.  It was so loud, even with the windows closed, you could hear them.

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  • Ellie1959
    Ellie1959 Member Posts: 316
    edited July 2011
    You all need to come and visit me at my cottage on the Mighty Miss - I love it so much - I sleep down there every chance I get even though the bed sucks because the sunrises are magnificent - tons of birds, frogs, owls, coyotes (unfortunately lots of mosquitoes and fishflies at times but lately it's been great! I love to garden and to hang out in the sun....., what a life! Nothing fancy but just right for me!Cool
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  • BarbaraA
    BarbaraA Member Posts: 7,378
    edited July 2011

    I suffered the 17 year ones, too.It was so gross, they dropped out of trees on you and completely covered the sidewalks. And they CRUNCHED when you walked. UGH.

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  • BarbaraA
    BarbaraA Member Posts: 7,378
    edited July 2011

    Elle, where on the Miss are you? I love rivers. Well, any water really.

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  • Ellie1959
    Ellie1959 Member Posts: 316
    edited July 2011

    Our cottage is in Bellevue Iowa - just 20 miles from Dubuque where we live. We are in the tri-states - IA, WI, and Ill. - I love any water too - so calming and peaceful!

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  • 1Athena1
    1Athena1 Member Posts: 6,696
    edited July 2011

    I remember all of the ruckus here about the cicadas. I had a friend from Texas who was laughing, because apparently they have them there all the time - calling them something else, I believe.

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited July 2011

    Barbara, tee, hee...wasn't it AMAZING - I managed TWO of their 'cycles' - first one the year I moved from London, darn, I thought I'd landed on the wrong planet!  I don't think someone who hasn't lived through a 17 year CICADA cyclle can imagine the noise, and the ABUNDANCE.  If you stood in one place they fell from the tree all over you!

    But, fun part too.  I took a few just, and I mean just after they came out of the ground.  Took them inside & put them on my dining room table, and watched them open.  My own little Nature Program.  It took almost 45 minutes.  They came out completely white, with two black spots on the head.  Had what looked like crumpled up kleenex at their sides, eventually, the "kleenex" opened, and became wings, and the "black spots" started to lighten and the whole thing got darker from the head down.  I had a beloved 4 year old neighbor watch one too, he loved it almost as much as I did ;)  They we brought them outside - to chew up my peach tree!!!!!

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  • 3monstmama
    3monstmama Member Posts: 1,447
    edited July 2011

    Bats are AWESOME and their disappearence is very bad.  A single bat eats huge numbers of insects each night--often the bitey kind that carry diseases.  The only bats you see near you are sick bats and they should just be ignored.

    The first time we went to Beijing, there were TONS of bats and hardly any mosquitos.  The last time we were there, the number of bats had declined but there were plenty of mosquitos.  Not sure if it was because of diseases in the bat colonys or because they spay DDT-equals on the trees to kill other bugs which in turn poisons the bats.

    I remember 17 year cicadas from 3d or 4th grade.  A really huge cycle.  never saw them like that again....

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  • rosemary-b
    rosemary-b Member Posts: 2,006
    edited July 2011

    Dinnertime. Nobody is home but me so I am having a hamburger with dijon mustard and ketchup and tortila chips with homemade guacamole (okay not really, just mashed up avacado with salsa). Oh there will probably be red wine and ice cream too. And I wonder why I am gaining weight.

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  • Alpal
    Alpal Member Posts: 1,785
    edited July 2011

    I spent 8 summers at camp in Tennessee. Still my favorite place in the world. Every night the bats swooped through the cabins. All the little girls screamed and put their shower caps on because everyone knew bats went straight for your hair. Then the counselors would go outside and shine a flashlight and the bats would swoop out the door towards the light. I have a close camp friend who lives in Austin TX. She's never been to see the bats come out from under the bridge (big tourist attraction there) because she thinks people will think she's strange for wearing a shower cap. Old habits are hard to break.

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  • suzieq60
    suzieq60 Member Posts: 6,059
    edited July 2011

    We are having big trouble with flying foxes over here - they look like bats to me - we call them fruit bats. Anyway, they spread a virus called the Hendra virus which effects horses and humans if they come into contact with it. We've had a recent outbreak here in Queensland and a number of horses have had to be destroyed or died (sorry horse lovers). The people who came in contact are being tested. We have had several people die from this in the past. They are also protected and live in huge colonies everywhere. They are still trying to create a vaccine for it but no luck yet.

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  • ritaz
    ritaz Member Posts: 186
    edited July 2011

    susieq48:  That's just awful that that is happening in Australia...My husband travels a lot and he cannot believe how self involved the news media is in the US...when he travels there's all kinds of news about the US in other countries - other countries are just barely a blip on the radar in our media...I would have had no idea that something like that is happening where you live...And, isn't it just a matter of time before that virus moves around?  It's a small, small world...

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  • RetiredLibby
    RetiredLibby Member Posts: 1,992
    edited July 2011

    Oh man, the cicadas!!!! I have lived through TWO cycles of Swarm X - the big, 17-year swarm in DC....1987 and 2004. I am terrified of them beyond all reason ... I swear, if one gets on me, I will die. They are different than the annual summer cicadas. They are everywhere! It is like Hitchcock's "The Birds"... When the next swarm hatches in 2021, we will have retired to the upper Midwest. I have informed DH that if they are there, we will be spending 6 weeks in Ireland, which doesn't have them. The last time, in 2004, I was walking to the bus, scanning anxiously to see if they were coming out. I turned the corner and THERE THEY WERE - covering the ENTIRE TELEPHONE POLE! I sucked in a horrified breath and ran back to get my car because I already had a plan to drive to a parking garage so I could avoid walking outside. I am truly irrational about them considering they don't bite or even eat. They just come out of the ground, sing, have sex, lay eggs, chew off the branches and die. UGH!

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