Sandy, I don't know but I can sympathize with you. I had a frog around my waterfall for couple months. He finally left or something got him.
I guess you don't want to repot, but have you tried bug-b-gone or something like that? I could be a bug that you want around also except for the noise.

That should say "It could be a bug".

Could be cricket or cicada. Most likely cricket.

I'd bet on a 7 year Cicada.... one of the strangest looking bugs ever.... and their molting shells are weird too.

Is it a katydid? I found katydid eggs for the first time a couple days ago.

Cicadas are annoying, that's for sure. Although, why you'd only have one puzzles me. I thought they usually arrive en masse.

Wait until you hear them by the thousands. :D

Brenda

What?? By the thousands? You guys are scaring me!

Joereal, it's not a cricket for sure, I know what they sound like, this thing is so LOUD and low-pitch it makes my skin crawl, I absolutely cannot stand it.

I will research cicada and katydid.

Thanks for the suggestions, keep them coming, if people in the OC hear this also, let me know...maybe we do have an invasion...yuck!

sanda

I'm sure there are various other insect candidates but in the Philippines, I've encountered such low transformer zapping from several crickets. There are many kinds of crickets and each produces their own unique sound patterns.

I would have also though of Katydids but I thought they are not nocturnal, maybe some are.

Where are you? In the Palm Springs area where I grew up, we had "locusts" as we called 'em, with very loud buzzing in the hot summer evenings. I think they were really cicadas. Here is a wikipedia page, at the bottom there is a sound recording:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicada
Carla in Sac

Carla, how long have you lived here in Sac? I just found Katydid eggs and nymphs and had no idea they were ever here in northern California, have you ever heard them? I listened to the southwestern one, that sounds familiar, but I might have heard them down there.

I've lived in Sac since 1999, but I have no idea what a Katydid would look like or sound like, being a native Californian. Or maybe I would, but I just didn't know they were Katydids?
Carla

I have katydids in my yard that occasionally munch on my citrus leaves, but they don't make much noise, but I know they are Katydids. Katydids, grasshoppers, crickets, they all belong to the same order of insects, orthoptera, IIRC.

I always thought that Datydids said: katy-did-she-did-she-did... or something to that effect.

Westelle, JenniferSchmidt has a few samples of how katydids sound... I think I've heard them before... but I've lived in Sac since 1999 also, and all around Northern Cal, and never seen them before this spring.

Are you in Orange County or up north? if in the oc call "Vector Control" and ask them (under government pages). But good news is I have lived here my life and never heard about a such a thing that is long lived, a few days and its dead or gone. Of course in OC we are encroaching into new areas so maybe its a first.

But I reckon it will stop in a bit of time if its a bug.

Personally I think your husband somehow hooked the malibu lights up to the dvd player.

joereal, you were right!!!
It was a cricket! Our family came for a BBQ on Mother's day, and sure enough, as soon as the sun went down, that bug started buzzing!! So I had a contest, whoever catches it gets a bottle of good tequila!! My brother-in law got it!! I was tremendously relieved, but didn't want to see the d%@m bug in the bag...they told me it was a cricket -- obviously not the garden-variety type, but something big and weird...hopefully it didn't get a chance to multiply...yuck!

sanda

Big and weird? Not a mole cricket?

Here is a link that might be useful: What's that bug?

I didn't know you were having a contest with tequila. I would have shown up!!!!

I'm glad you got your bug!

FYI: The 17 year Cicada's are scheduled to come out this year. It should be a noisy summer. The last time this happened, a Cicada went into a bar in Orange County and ordered a Bloody Mary.
The bartender said, "I'm sorry we only serve Grasshoppers!"