Attack of the Minminzemi

They say min min min min minnnn.  They makes adults run in fear. They’re the winged scary-cicadas! Kids, watch out! Kids, no, don’t!  You enjoy catching them? With your fingers?

The “semi”, one version of the Japanese cicada, emerges every year around late June. They hide up in the tree branches. Except when they fly to a better position. Or when they hang out on the front door preventing your wife from entering the apartment until you’ve squeezed through the doorway and whacked the monster with a broom then fled back inside .

And even then a semi has flown into our apartment at least once. (And once hitched a ride in on my wife’s pant leg. Don’t remind her.)

Now, you say, those little cicadas are so cute, how can you be afraid? The reason: see photos.

Sometimes I’ll be watching TV and – WHAM!– one hits the window, knocks itself out, and falls out-of-service to the ground for the cockroaches to feast on.

The semis make their noise, flutter around the stairwell, and one day in September, it suddenly gets quiet.

After that, children focus on catching whatever else is crawling or flying  around – dragonflies (tombo) or  big black scary beetles (kabutomushi). See those pictures. Enjoy!

Larger photos for PNN visitors. Semi cicada photos and sounds, and other types of cicadas in Japan. Japan bug sounds. More bugs in Japan: Rhinoceros Beetle; Intimidating insects