Now is the time when cicadas are everywhere.

Once it starts to get dark you can hear that soothing familiar chirping sound.

Apparently that sound is caused by males using an appendage called the tymbal.

There are many different uses for the cicada's song but the main one is to attract females.

When I was young I was fascinated by the shells that they leave behind because they look almost exactly like a tiny little alien.

I think you could probably imagine someone like H.P. Lovecraft using the shell of a cicada as a centerpiece in one of his alien designs.

We used to leave the house at about 5 in the afternoon when everyone was home from school and begin to walk around the neighborhood.

We would follow the trail of cicada singing until we came to a tree where it was the loudest.

More than one time we actually caught a live one to see what would happen but it wasn't as interesting as it seemed like it would have been, so we let it go.

The shells though have always been completely fascinating.

I once saw a live one emerge from a shell and that was super cool.

I used to love collecting cicada shells when I was a kid.

It's one of those things you can't do now that you're an adult because people would ask you......

"What are you doing?"

Then if you said that you were just collecting cicada shells they would say ....

"Well that's not very appropriate for adult man now is it?"

It's kind of like that time we tried to go trick or treating a few years ago but nobody would give us any candy.

I guess you can't go back now that you're an adult but I still love cicada shells and I think they're extremely cool.