Here are this week's winning entries for our cicada limerick contest. As the six-week reign of the Brood X cicadas is coming to an end, so is our limerick contest. Your more than 800 humorous responses have helped make this one of the most successful reader participation features we've had on the editorial pages. We will print the last of our winning limericks next week.

Also, we will choose more than one winner because of the large number of limericks we received. Those winners will have lunch with members of the editorial board later this summer.

A cicada from Over-the-Rhine
Emerged craving and hoping to find
Some Graeter's and ribs
With plenty of bibs
And a stogie Ted Gregory left behind
Dan Null
West Chester

There once was an intelligent cicada
Who was very interested in data
So he went to college
To gain some more knowledge
And came out a phi kappa beta
Walter W. Cool
Florence

There was a pregnant cicada
Who was crawling up my leg-a
I gave it a slap
And soon after that
She gave birth on my leg a scrambled egg-a
June Quint
Loveland

A Cincy cicada named Brown
Well, he didn't dig up, he dug down.
He dug right through the Earth,
Took a bend toward Perth
And popped out near Australia's Bridgetown.
Bill Mc Cormick
Cincinnati

There was once a cicada named Gus
Who flew into the front of a bus
And he said with a grin
I'd do it again
But right now I just ain't got the guts.
Mike Scott
Batavia

Every seventeen years come cicadas
Teenaged boys seeking out ladies
With a din and a tither
Flying yon and to hither
Now get thee back unto Hades
Rick Stone
Westwood

There was a cicada named Kritsky
Who cruised the Ohio drunk on whiskey
He dive-bombed a dinghy
And broke his poor wingie
And now he must travel by jet-ski.
Helen Marks Waits
Cincinnati

The cicadas came up from the ground
At first they made no sound
Then the din that they made
As millions of eggs they laid
Caused annoyance that was really profound.
Mary L. Woltermann
Fort Thomas

There was a cicada named Sue
And yes he was a boy, too
But instead of hating
His body was mating
And now there are slews of Sue IIs
Carolyn R. McClary
Harrison

There once was a cat named Nick
Who ate anything - or least took a lick
He ada Cicada
"Tastes like rutabaga,
I hope it doesn't make me sick."
Peggy Williams
Forest Park

Admittedly it's been quite a while
That we've seen red-eyed creatures so vile
But let me be terse
Things could be a lot worse
Cicadas don't carry West Nile.
Kurt Bofinger
Anderson Township

There once was a man named Thad Matta
Who came to our town - Cincinnata
Entymologists, perplexed,
Heard he coached the Brood X
So they all went to his yard for data
Liz Tassone
Loveland