Periodical Cicadas to Emerge in May

Associated Press ^ | Fri Mar 12, 1:24 PM ET | DAN LEWERENZ

[Pharmboy]

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - After 17 years of relative quiet, Mother Nature is bringing the noise. Periodical cicadas, a species of the grasshopper-like insects best known for the scratching, screeching "singing" of the males, will emerge this May, filling forests in more than a dozen states. Almost as abruptly as they arrive, they'll disappear underground for another 17 years.

"Why do certain insects take only one year to develop, and others take two or three? It's just part of their genetic programming," said Greg Hoover, senior extension entomologist for Penn State University.

There are at least 13 broods of 17-year cicadas, plus another five broods that emerge every 13 years. The last to emerge, Brood IX, was seen last spring in parts of West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina.

This year, it's time for Brood X, the so-called "Big Brood," to surface. Its range stretches from Georgia, west through Tennessee and to isolated pockets of Missouri, north along the Ohio Valley and into Michigan, and east into New Jersey and New York.

"This is one of those years we kind of dread," said Paris Lambdin, professor of entomology and plant pathology at the University of Tennessee. "We had an emergence a couple years ago around Nashville, but nothing like what we expect this one will be."

No other periodical cicada covers so much ground. And with hundreds of them per acre in infested areas, the noise will be hard to miss.

"In 1987, coming back from the University of Maryland on Interstate 95, when you drove through a wooded area you could hear the insects," Hoover said. "This would have been mid to late June, with the windows down, and then it would shut down when you got to a field or a non-wooded area."

In rare years, a 13-year brood can emerge to add its collective voice to that of a 17-year brood.

"Out in the Midwest is where things get really hairy," Hoover said. "Missouri, Illinois, Indiana have combinations of 17-year-brooded individuals and 13-year-brooded individuals, and they can have overlap."

There's no question that the class of 2004 will be a nuisance. The cicadas will make plenty of noise, and adults are poor fliers that tend to bump into things.

But as swarms go, these cicadas aren't that bad. Adults don't feed on leaves, so they won't strip the trees, but they do lay their eggs in twigs.

"The females, once mated, will lay pockets of eggs along twigs that will cause structural weakening of those twigs," Hoover said. "Eventually they may drop off and fall to the ground, the nymphs will drop off and fall to the soil, and that's where this species is for the next 17 years."

On the Net:

PSU College of Agricultural Sciences Periodical Cicada Fact Sheet: http://www.ento.psu.edu/extension/factsheets/periodical_cicada.htm

[Pharmboy]

It's going to be a noisy spring/summer, 'round these parts...

[Arkinsaw]

I love the noise. Its never annoying to me, just a welcome part of spring. If you get tired of it just yell real loud and they will stop......for a few seconds.

[WVNan]

As I was driving to and from church Sunday evening I could swear I was hearing Chicadas, but according to this it's too early. I was hearing the classic stop and go noise as I passed certain areas. My first thought was Chicadas, but I also thought it's too early for them here. Weird. I've always kinda liked to hear them. Reminds me of my grandparents place when I was a child.

[stylin19a]

Where they went underground 17 years ago, may now be a stip mall.

[WayneM]

You were probably hearing frogs that live in ditches along the road - singing for a mate. They have been out of hibernation here in N. Alabama for the past few weeks.

[Antoninus]

Same here in Jersey & Eastern PA. I wonder if the cicada-killer wasps are going to be around again too....

[Antoninus]

Biggest, ugliest darn wasps I ever saw. And sounded like a B-17 in flight too. I was scared to death of 'em as a kid.

[old-ager]

I love them too.

> If you get tired of it just yell real loud and they will stop......for a few seconds.

Did not know that!

[quantim]

Holy cicada Batman! I went on a camping trip circa '81-82 out east and the noise was so shrill and deafening had to sleep in the car. A Maryland State Park officer explained the scenerio. The screaming went on for hundreds of miles back to Michigan.

[null and void]

KEWL!

[stylin19a]

agh..stip=strip

[Atchafalaya]

That's one of those big wasps that nest in the ground. I got really pissed last year when I saw one going hard after a hummingbird at my feeder; no more in my yard!

[Atchafalaya]

BTW they are a WHOLE lot more manuverable than a B 17, but I'm sure you already know that.

[WVNan]

Nope, weren't frogs. I know frogs. It was definitely the sound of Chicadas. That constant whirring metalic sound like a million chains rattling.

[Pharmboy]

Memories of childhood for me too. That's what's so neat about them: because they only come out every 17, the times and places we hear them have distinct memories.

As a kid I remember seeing the empty husk of one on a tree afetr it molted...never forgot that ghostly appearance, and didn't know what it was until I took bio in high school years later.

[metesky]

The Mashpee area of Cape Cod has a large brood of 13 year Cicadas. Quite a sight. Disgusting smashed bugs on every windshield, roads littered with the dead.

The strange part of it is that, at least the Cape ones (I've seen 'em twice), they go from dawn to dusk and then a sudden silence. Very eerie.

[TC Rider]

I'm sorry, I don't subscribe to periodicals.

[mewzilla]

I was in NC the last time the little buggers came for a visit. Thge exterior of my sis-in-law's apt. complex was covered with the darn things. The stairways were like a scene from a creature feature. ICK.

[pageonetoo]

I was wondering when someone would beat me to that thought! I was just too lazy to type it, this beautiful, sunny saturday, in West Virginia, almost heaven! It is enough to click!

[proud American in Canada]

"this beautiful, sunny saturday, in West Virginia, almost heaven! "

Wow, I love that post--you've created a picture in my mind that's so clear I can almost feel the warm breeze!

Happy Saturday to you! and to everyone on this board! :)

[IndyTiger]

the noise was so shrill and deafening had to sleep in the car.

About five years ago we had the cicadas in northeast Ohio. You're right about the noise - you just couldn't get away from it wherever you were.

[Pharmboy]

Yep...in the hills of Northern New Jersey this morning we've also got a beautiful, sunny day with a crisp 42 degrees. Best to you...

[Antoninus II]

As kids, my brother and I would climb up trees, catch them, and tie a string around their heads. It fit right in behind the eyes and when you'd release them, they'd fly round with you holding their "leash". It was fun!

[VadeRetro]

Not this sh!t again!

[Pharmboy]

Hey--it's only every 17 or 13 years (depending on where you live). Just think if it were an annual thing! And here's a future entymologist...

[BabsC]

Happy Saturday to you! and to everyone on this board! :)

Back at ya! Here in North Georgia, beautiful sunny day, bird feeders full and occupied, 7 deer at the corn pile and beside them 4 wild male turkey strutting around. Squirrels everywhere, rabbits heading back to burrows, blue heron making a rukus, pair of wood ducks intently watching the otters down on the creek. Dogs snoozing in the sun and watching it all with busy eyes.

Sorry but I'm bragging, I'm retired and living in paradise. Can't wait for warm weather to put up the humming bird feeders.

[VadeRetro]

Hey--it's only every 17 or 13 years (depending on where you live).

It's 17, but it seems like less.

[mountaineer]

The cicadas were out and about in the Northern Panhandle about four years ago. I remember having a family picnic on Memorial Day. The critters decided to hitch rides on my poor brother-in-law's shirt, and I spent most of the day swatting them off of him. By the end of the summer, we had huge piles of cicada carcasses piled up around the bases of our oak trees. I didn't mind the noise, but was tired of having the things swarm about me whenever I went outside.

[Virginia-American]

The periodical 13- and 17-year cicada is one of the extremely rare places in nature where prime numbers show up because they are prime. (EG, 5 petals on a flower is because 5 is a Fibonacci number, not because it's prime)

The Darwinian explanation is obvious: it is impossible for a predator species to synchronize its broods unless it uses the same prime number

If they were 16-year, a predator with a 2-year cycle feasts every 16 years. 15 years, and a 3-year predator...

Somehow "mindless, random" natural selection homing in on something as abstract as prime numbers just amazes me. (IMO, Fibonacci numbers are "naturally" associated with growth. Interesting, but not as mysterious as primes)

Google is my friend I just learned Alan Turing worked on plant growth.

interesting reference

PH, would you mind pinging the usuals? Thanks.

[PatrickHenry]

PING. [This ping list is for the evolution side of evolution threads, and sometimes for other science topics. FReepmail me to be added or dropped.]

[Saturnalia]

Gah, I remember the last time we had the bugs in SW Ohio.
Damn things were EVERYWHERE, the driveway was full of them.
This was back in 1987, so the bugs were a great deal larger in my eyes (I was 7).

[Saturnalia]

To make this picture more realistic, she needs at least
three of the red eyed monsters clinging to her while she
runs in a random direction. Gah, I hate them.

[Elle Bee]

how quickly time passes ... can you imagine waking from a 17 year nap today?

what a difference a cicada cycle makes

.

[Elle Bee]

how quickly time passes ... can you imagine waking from a 17 year nap today?

what a difference a cicada cycle makes

.

[wideminded]

The periodical 13- and 17-year cicada is one of the extremely rare places in nature where prime numbers show up because they are prime.

Fascinating. Thanks.

[Tijeras_Slim]

I remember these from growing up in Maryland. We don't have the big 17 year variety in New Mexico, but a 1/2 scale version that looks the same, makes a clicking noise, and comes every other years.

[visualops]

The most fun is taking the molt shells and sticking them on your shirt and then casually walking by your mother in an attempt to freak her out. Of course my mother spent many childhood years in Egypt where they have, like, foot-long cockroaches so she wasn't too impressed, darnit. heh

[DefCon]

"...can you imagine waking from a 17 year nap today?..."
- - -
What?
And completely missing the Clinton years?

[Vinnie]

I love the noise

I like it too, normally.

I was in W. Pa 2 yrs ago when they had their 17 yr. cycle of cicadas.

You can't discern the sound of an individual cicada. Just a noise, loud.

My son and I went to a State Park and it was difficult to talk over the racket.

The female lays her eggs in the branches, usually in the pencil diameter tips. That kills the branch from that point out. You'll see a lot of brown.
Netting over your shrubs is a small help.

[Glenn]

That kills the branch from that point out. You'll see a lot of brown.

It looked like fall in the summer here in Hopewell. I have one associate who lived in a Motel 6 for a week to get away from the noise on his tree covered property. It was driving him to distraction.

Best of luck to the rest of you.

[Doctor Stochastic]

Selection works a bit like the Sieve of Eratosthenes. There have been several articles in "Science" and other magazines about this phenomenon. I tried simulating the behavior. The primes do tend to jump out.

[winker]

Just in time for my first spring fishing trip; Big Bass love em YUM!

[CobaltBlue]

Supposed to be hard on the vegetation, I am told. I've never been around them that I can recall. We moved to NoVa 16 years ago so missed them.

I wanted to plant a couple or three new cherry trees this year, am thinking maybe I should hold off.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!