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People in France put these charming porcelain cicadas at the entrance of their homes to bring good luck.  I have been going to France for nearly 25 years, so I have accumulated a small collection. I didn't get one this year but I have enough to keep me company.  Not all of them are up on the fence.  Some could hold flowers, one could sing (battery operated).  I love the big yellow one, which iselaborately painted. Cicadas bring childhoood memories.  I grew up in Japan listening to cicadas sing and running away from them.  They fly furiously and can be rather annoying if they get inside your mosquito at night when you are just about to turn in. There were no chemical repellants to kill insects back then. My brother would catch the cicadas with a butterfly net during the day and at night release them in the mosquito net just to be mean! My sister and I would run out ofthe mosquito net screaming.  Not all cicadas are a nuisance. Some sing beautifully and forlornly.  My favorite one sings like this: hoshee,tsuku tsuku tsuku.  Hoshee, tsuku tsuku tsuku.  Cicadas spend six toseven years as larvae, come out of the ground to mate and die within a few of weeks. The life of a cicada is so ephemeral. Sometimes, I think we are like them.