Cicada skins!

Derange · Post by **Derange** » Mon Jul 26, 2010 6:21 pm

wodesorel wrote:We get the 17-year swarms around here, but there hasn't been one in my area that I can remember. (I may have been too young at the last time.) A few years back my aunt who lives in a different county had such an extreme swarm that she had to shovel off her driveway and porch with a snow shovel because the skins were so thick.

Yeah... I was around 9-11 at the time. Thankfully our house was spared, but we were delivering phonebooks that summer, and... you couldn't walk anywhere without hearing a nice delightful crunch! I'm still scarred.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Jul 29, 2010 10:29 pm

In Arizona we have cicadas - the the patio post the other day I saw about 15 exoskeletons on it - gross - but we saved them - I gave two to our crabs and they were gone in about 15 minutes - ate them up faster than popcorn

Silver Buttons · Post by **Silver Buttons** » Fri Jul 30, 2010 11:02 pm

wodesorel wrote:This is hysterical! Only crab people would look at a bug exo and think "Oh! Crabby food!" I just love it. I mean, my hubby thinks I'm nuts for always going "Do you think the crabs would like this?" at the grocery store. I hope we find a cicada skin so I can pull that one on him. He'd freak!

Well, it's a good way to get myself to eat more fruits and veggies, since I have to buy them, anyway, for the crabs. Do you cook meals just for them, too? I have some cooked fish, cut up into crab-sized portions, in a container in the freezer.

In Arizona we have cicadas - the the patio post the other day I saw about 15 exoskeletons on it - gross - but we saved them - I gave two to our crabs and they were gone in about 15 minutes - ate them up faster than popcorn

Hey, cool, I live in Prescott! Not too many cicadas this year, but I got lucky when I found all those exos on the wall. They were stuck on there pretty good, too, with those sharp little hooks on their feet.

Post by **wodesorel** » Sat Jul 31, 2010 12:32 am

Silver Buttons wrote: Do you cook meals just for them, too?

No, I give them everything raw. I do have bags of bite-sized frozen meats and seafood for them though. I can't eat most fruits because of allergies, so I'm actually quite jealous of the crabs! My hubby complains because the crabs have ownership of the storage on the freezer door, and it is packed! :roll: Something about how they eat better than we do.

When I'm at the grocery store I always walk through the produce section to see of they've gotten anything "new" in that the crabs haven't had yet. Plantain got a serious groan from my hubby since I was already feeding them bananas. "Aren't they the same thing?"

Going to the Asian grocer up in Cleveland was really fun. There are just isles of dried things that I bet the crabs would love! (Again, hubby started rolling his eyes a lot.) Unfortunately I can only read English and almost none of the packages were fully translated and I didn't want to risk getting the crabs something with preservatives.

wendyj · Post by **wendyj** » Sat Jul 31, 2010 1:04 pm

I have to tell you a story about these "wonderful" bugs. When my now 23yr old daughter was small she used to collect them and carry them around in a plastic pumpkin (like for trick or treating) now she has a daughter who is 4 and collects them too. We have a treasure box for her and most of what is in there is those darn bugs. She loves to pick them up and examine them and play with them. Thought the story fit.

MudCrabDude · Post by **MudCrabDude** » Sat Jul 31, 2010 5:16 pm

Cool

amycolette · Post by **amycolette** » Sat Jul 31, 2010 8:19 pm

Wow! What a great idea. I've seen some cicada sheds in my backyard the last few weeks and never thought about feeding them to the crabs. Now I will have to go out and look around to see if I can collect some for the crabbies!

JeriC · Post by **JeriC** » Fri Aug 06, 2010 5:30 pm

Since reading this post last week, my daughter has harvested a small bowl of these "skins" from around our yard. Well the crabs in the 55g (mostly exotics & E's) love them, they will absolutely devour them. But the crabs in the 40g (PP's & E's) wont hardly touch them, at all..........weird

Kilimanjaro · Post by **Kilimanjaro** » Fri Aug 06, 2010 6:55 pm

I can't find any here!

TheCrabbyTabby · Post by **TheCrabbyTabby** » Fri Aug 06, 2010 7:40 pm

While on a dog walk, I found a whole dead cicada and tossed it into the tat when I got back along with some skins.

Kilimanjaro · Post by **Kilimanjaro** » Sat Aug 07, 2010 9:26 pm

I have two questions for everyone who has such luck with cicada skins.

1) Would anyone be interested in mailing me a cicada skin or two in return for one of my food products (under $3.00)?

2) Would anyone with enough access to cicada skins be willing to mail me some (in bulk - around 15 - 20 skins) in exchange for money or some products at my food store?

If anyone is interested, please PM me. I would love to try these with my crabs and also offer them under the Harvestables section at my store.

Thanks.

-Kili

amycolette · Post by **amycolette** » Sat Aug 07, 2010 10:03 pm

Found a few cicada sheds today...I threw 3 of them in the crabitat tonight...hoping to find they will be enjoyed tonight by my crabs!

Shivering Isles · Post by **Shivering Isles** » Sat Aug 07, 2010 10:24 pm

I am going to go look on the trees tomorrow because i dont see any by my house. Hopefully i find some delicious and healthy cicada skins!

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Aug 08, 2010 7:34 am

I made a bag of popcorn (air popped with no butter or salt) but my kids got to it and ate it. So I made another bag and I put in about 10 cicada skins from the backyard. So now my kids are grossed out seeing the popcorn mixed with cicadas. They won;t be getting into this bag!

TheCrabbyTabby · Post by **TheCrabbyTabby** » Sun Aug 08, 2010 5:13 pm

I am about to go and look for more cicada skins. My crabs loved the ones I had put in their food dish. They absolutely loved the dead cicada too. It was gone the next morning!

Kili- Sent you a PM about shipping you those skins.