However camouflage constitutes the cicada's only defense against predators during its short aerial life as it makes it difficult to detect, it is invalidated by its loud song. A peaceful insect, the cicada indeed has no other means of defense such as a bad smell like the woodbug (another Hemiptera) nor its rostrum, yet able to pierce wood. Among the cicada's numerous predators are wasps, grasshoppers, praying mantises, ants, and birds (magpies, swifts, owls, bee-eaters, chickadees, sparrows).