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If any of you are unaware, we're about to see another cicada outbreak. Every 17 years, certain states get flooded with a population of cicadas that come from underground to mate..in some areas they are as dense as 10 per square yard. It will be covered around here and I thought I might catch some for feeder insects. They're about the size of a hissing coachroach, but I don't know if they're ok to feed to chams. Just curious if any of you have fed cicadas before.
--Cory

Hey there,

Well, we just tried it out, and the chameleon loved it. Although I would'nt go over board on feeding them these, they seem to be a viable treat. Be cautious, because cicadas are supposedly difficult to digest. The cicada we tried had just recently emerged and was still very soft. Anybody else have good luck with them?

Vincent
http://www.screameleons.com

As i have said in like 3 or so threads on other forums, they are probably very unhealthy. They have been living in ground soaked with pesticides and fertlizers for 17 years and eat the plants that are full of pesticides and fertilizers. They most likely contain very high amounts of toxins (nicotine is one of them) but are also very high in chitin unless you find one that has recently emerged. But after a few sheds they are very hard. if you find one with blue eyes you can contact some universities because they are doing study's on the ones with blue eyes.
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0.1 "Tremper" looking Albino Leopard gecko (Lex)
0.0.1 tiger crested gecko (peachs)
1.1 Feral cats that we adopted (Fuzzy, and Bear)

I'm not a owner of any herps, just a domicile attendant.

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::As i have said in like 3 or so threads on other forums, they are probably very unhealthy. They have been living in ground soaked with pesticides and fertlizers for 17 years and eat the plants that are full of pesticides and fertilizers. They most likely contain very high amounts of toxins (nicotine is one of them) but are also very high in chitin unless you find one that has recently emerged. But after a few sheds they are very hard.::

The nymphs live far down in the soil pretty much well below the pesticide-line that other insect larvae (such as grubs) typically inhabit. Cicadas feed on the tree roots of large mature trees and those roots tend to go down deep and that's where the cicadas go...down deep. Any poisoning of a cicada by chemicals would lead to its death and it almost certainly would not survive to be abke to emerge from the ground and molt into a healthy flying adult.

Ciadas emerge from the ground as nymphs. They molt off their exo-skeleton and emerge soft and white with shriveled up wings. This is the only molt that an adult cicada goes through. Then much like a butterfly it will hang there from its perch pumping fluid from its abdomen into the wing veins slowly causing the wings to unfurl and stretch to full length (quite an impressive site to watch). Once the wings are stretched the cicada will continue to stay on its perch until it's new exoskeleton finally dries and hardens (darkening in color as it happens).

Sometimes cicadas do not properly molt out of their nymph form for one reason or another. There is a fungus that specifically attacks cicadas, but with the periodical ciadas it is usually due to the high numbers of them in a concentrated area and not enough suitable perching areas that lead to problems. Often a nymph climbing up looking for a perch may knock down to the ground another nymph that is part way through the critical molting process disrupting it completely and thereby leading it to not be able to finish it properly..disfigured or damaged wings and unable to fly that is what will ultimately lead to the death of the cicada from predators and scavengers.

Cicadas are actually very nutritous. They are eaten by a wide variety of animals from cats, dogs, possums, squirrels, birds, snakes, lizards, other inverts, etc. Even people eat them (some say they taste like asparagus and others say pistachios).

If one is using them as the occasional treat for a decent sized reptile then an adult is ok. Feed only those adults with a fully healthy looking appearance (ie no disfigurement of the wings). If you are uncomfortable with the hard exoskeleton (which seems odd since hissing cockroaches have more chitin to their exoskeletons than a cicada does) or have smaller reptiles you can of course go out in the middle of the night and collect cicadas that are recently molted and still a nice pearly white color and hope that your reptile will not mind being disturbed to be fed a late night snack (unless your reptile is a nocturnal one of course).

:::if you find one with blue eyes you can contact some universities because they are doing study's on the ones with blue eyes.:::

Now this is very interesting. I've not heard of the blue-eyed periodicals before. What universities are conducting these studies? Just today I found one that didn't have red eyes...more of a really pale white tinged with green though I guess at the right angle it could be interpreted as blue-eyed. If I were dealing with a snake, I'd sorta say the cicada was leaning towards being hypomelanistic but with reduced red pigment not black which could account for the pale eyes and a slightly reduced amount of orange color on the body. The leading edge vein of both forwings which would normally be a bright yellowish orange was also that same pale green-white as the eyes. I've tried looking for information on the internet about this oddity but haven't had much luck.

not sure of the universities. But my brother saw something on the local News about how there is research about blue eyed cicadas because supposodly they can see good.
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0.1 "Tremper" looking Albino Leopard gecko (Lex)
0.0.1 tiger crested gecko (peachs)
1.1 Feral cats that we adopted (Fuzzy, and Bear)

-soon to come-
0.1 yearling ball pythons

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Edited for TOS violation

Edited on May 19, 2004 at 00:11:37 by PHGinger.

I've fed them to my cham before. He goes totally nuts over them. Thankfully the area that I live in doesn't have pestisides or any other junk like that in the ground. I grab them when ever I see them, which is rare. My cham has never seemed to have any problems eating them. Just make sure not to feed to large of ones.