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Health & Fitness

Cicadas and Summer Heat

If I didn't know any better I would say it was one of those "four-letter" words. You say cicada and no matter where you are, someone will react.

summer art classes are great fun, especially when it's over 95 degrees outside. We have a wonderful, air-conditioned space for you or your child to take an art class or camp.

But what about our outdoor class, plein air painting at , or even just the noon-time break for lunch?  That's when the heat gets a little tricky.  Most years, we have no big problems...drink a lot of water, put a cold, wet rag on your neck, etc.  This year we have a different problem: CICADAS.

If I didn't know any better I would say it was one of those "four-letter" words.  You say cicada and no matter where you are, someone will react.

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My 10-year-old daughter is frightened by them. They chirp and buzz outside our kitchen window and try to fly into her hair on the way to the car.  As I was driving down Highway 40, they kept flying into my windshield...I thought one cracked it, but it was just a big blob of dead cicada.  Worst of all, in my opinion, are the ones on the ground that get crunched as you walk almost anywhere in the area!  How many more weeks do we have?

I felt very bad for all the folks who had planned to head out to the first summer concert at Faust Park this week. Tuesday concerts have become a tradition for many Chesterfield families. But the concert, Bob Kuban, and cicadas. It wasn't the buzzing but the swarming that was the problem...my hope is that they are starting to depart the area and the concerts will continue as planned!

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For now...remember that though a lovely ice cream shop in Columbia made cicada ice cream, in my humble opinion, cicadas are foe, not food!

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