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Re: silencing cicadas

Subject: Re: silencing cicadas
From: "Emanuele" lamacchiacosta
Date: Sun Jun 5, 2011 2:41 pm ((PDT))
On 05/06/2011 16:48, nikolas.valsamakis wrote:
>
> A friend of mine is working as a professional sound recordist for
> film, here in Greece.
> He asked me if there is a harmless way of silencing the cicadas during
> the film shot, which lasts usually no more than 1 to 3 minutes. Their
> vocalization is so loud that covers almost anything, including the
> dialog. A common practice of silencing the cicadas in the film
> industry here in Greece is: hitting the branches of the tree with long
> sticks, spraying water with a hose or throwing pressed air. This
> practice is not working very well since the cicadas after a while
> adapt to it and continue their otherwise beautiful singing :-).
>
> I know that all the people in this list love the cicadas and think of
> their vocalization as part of the environment. The question is if you
> know a practice that could make the cicadas stop singing for a while
> and that is harmless for them, the other species and the environment.
> What is the common practice in other countries?
>

None known in my italian experience, since the cicadas are "singing"
just to cool down themselves we should change the weather instead.
If just one in the area on a specific tree you can throw something
through the leaves and it will shut up for 5 to 30 seconds.
If more around you will spend the day running all around throwing things
at the trees.
I did it once years ago and for a while I've been called "er cicala" for
that reason.
Just minimise the cicadas singing the more you can and get a wild track
just after the shot.

Ah, yes, sure, you can kill them all as well. If you can find them. :-D

--
Emanuele

www.ecsound.net










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