Cicadas Ready To Emerge After 17 Years, Prepare For A Noisy Spring

Cicadas, the noisy insects that emerge every 17 years, are going to be out in force this spring in parts of the northeast U.S., making for a noisy spring in Ohio and points east.

As CNN reports, once the temperature of the soil reaches 64 degrees in parts of Maryland, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia, the cicadas will emerge from the soil and drown the region in their noisy song.

Ohio State University entomology professor Dr. Dave Shelter, also known as the “Bug Doc,” tells WBNS (Columbus) that cicadas are going to be downright thick in Ohio.

“There will be trillions. A couple hundred thousand may be in a particular area.”

The cicadas that will be emerging in the northeast U.S. this spring have been living underground — during this part of their life cycle they’re called “nymphs” — since emerging from their eggs in 1999. During the underground phase of their life, the nymphs get their nourishment from sucking juices from plant roots. After 17 years underground, once the soil reaches the magic temperature, the cicadas emerge, shed their skin, and spend the next two to four weeks above ground, mating.

The loud, continuous buzzing sound you hear when the cicadas emerge is the sound of males attempting to attract a mate. After mating, the females return underground to lay their eggs, and the cicada’s life cycle is complete.

The emergence of cicadas can be a mixed bag. No one really enjoys being surrounded swarms of insects the size of a child’s hand, specifically noisy ones (the song of some cicadas can be heard up to a mile away). In fact, so loud is the cicada’s song that the insects are known to mistake the sound power tools for their mates’ song. That means that if you’re mowing the lawn during cicada season, you may very well have one land on you! Don’t worry – they’re harmless.

However, in some cultures, cicadas are actually considered a sign of good fortune, which may be an economic boon to the tourism industry. The Bug Doc says he’s been getting calls from some resorts wanting to know when the cicadas will emerge, with a view toward attracting international tourists.

“They have visitors that are coming from China and Japan and European countries and want to come and experience the cicada emergence.”

Although the old adage says that cicadas emerge every 17 years, that statement isn’t entirely true. There are actually over 1,300 species of cicada, according to Wikipedia, and not all of them live underground and emerge above-ground according to predictable cycles. Only the so-called “periodical cicadas” do that, and not all “periodical cicadas” have 17-year cycles; some have 13-year cycles.

Further, of the 17-year periodical cicadas that can be found in the U.S., they’re not all on the same cycle. Entomologists have identified 23 “broods”, including two that have gone extinct, of periodical cicadas in the U.S., meaning that every year, there will be some brood of periodical cicadas emerging somewhere in the U.S.

Brood V, the brood that will be emerging this spring, last emerged in 1999. If you miss it this year, they’ll be back in 2033.

Elsewhere in the U.S., broods of periodic cicadas are expected to emerge in 2017 (Northern Georgia, Western North Carolina, Northwestern South Carolina), 2018 (certain counties in upstate New York), and so on each year (excluding 2022, 2023, 2025, and 2026 – those broods are extinct), repeating the cycle as far as anyone can predict.

Periodical cicadas only exist in the United States — particularly, only east of the Great Plains. The species dates back 18,000 years, to the time when the last glaciers receded.

As of this writing, it is not known specifically when the soil temperature will be warm enough for the cicadas to emerge.

[Photo by Richard Ellis/Getty Images]