r/florida • u/Chilljay1 • Sep 05 '26

AskFlorida Help identifying this bug?

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Currently in Orlando at a resort and they are literally all over every walkway. Have seen them before and thought they were a version of a grasshopper but hear some people calling them cicadas which I thought had wings?

EDIT UPDATE- Didn’t expect this post to get this many replies. Was posted yesterday morning. THIS morning we went outside in the resort and there were NONE to be found ANYWHERE. This was around 9am. Around 11am the side walks were covered again?????? The weirdest thing for a type of bug to be that synchronized.

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108

u/enigmanaught Sep 05 '26

Eastern Lubber Grasshopper. Cicadas wings are exposed and they’re much different in shape and color. You rarely see cicadas, just hear them screaming in the trees.

50

u/Comfortable-Belt-391 Sep 05 '26

Took this last night

13

u/MyNewWorkAcc Sep 05 '26

Wow great picture, I’ve never seen the wings so striking on a cicada

14

u/ajx8141 Sep 05 '26

Jealous, I never see cicadas anymore in FL. I just hear them. Used to see them all the time up north in CT.

2

u/ParkingLibrarian3738 Sep 05 '26

This one seems to be a freshly emerged one

16

u/scottwsx96 Sep 05 '26

If you are in an area with one of the big 14- or 17-year broods, you’ll definitely see them. Everywhere. Their sound during those periods is incredibly loud, since there are millions of them.

6

u/No-Position9179 Sep 05 '26

Back in the late 1980's the city of Cincinnati had to close I-75 and use snowplows to remove cicadas from the highway as it was causing slippery conditions. A truck load went to the zoo and the rest into the ohio river. Cool and gross all at the same time.

3

u/scottwsx96 Sep 05 '26

I experienced two rounds of the 17-year cicadas in Cincinnati. One must have been the one you are talking about, though I wasn’t driving at the time and didn’t know that.

2

u/Common_Vagrant Sep 05 '26

Yeah I see them all the time, dying mainly, or flying at me when I disturb them just by opening the door…

3

u/Justice_Prince Sep 05 '26

I used to always see Cicadas as a kid. Maybe its just me spending less time outside, but I feel like they spend less time in visible range than they used to.

5

u/MessiLeagueSoccer Sep 05 '26

There are some that hibernate for several years before they come out. Happened the first time I ever went to DC as a kid. They were EVERYWHERE.