Beginning in the Spring of 2024, The US will face a cicada “apocalypse” with over a trillion insects emerging in a rare 200-year event. Two distinct cicada broods will simultaneously surface for the first time since the 19th century when Thomas Jefferson was president, spanning multiple states including Georgia.
Cicadas are unique in their lengthy lifespan. Cicadas have prominent eyes set wide apart, short antennae, and membranous front wings. For more than a decade, cicadas, which are in the same family as stink bugs and bed bugs, live in underground burrows until they are mature enough to rise to the surface. Cicadas spend most of their lives as underground nymphs, emerge in predictable intervals of 13 or 17 years, depending on the species and the location. The unusual duration and synchronization of their emergence may reduce the number of cicadas lost to predation both by making them a less reliably available prey (so that any predator that evolved to depend on cicadas for sustenance might starve waiting for their emergence), and by emerging in such huge numbers that they will satiate any remaining predators before losing enough of their number to threaten their survival as a species. Weeks before they are set to emerge, the insects create tunnels to the surface, but do not come out of their homes until soil temperatures at a depth of 7-8 inches are about 64 degrees Fahrenheit.
While the insects’ mating call may be bothersome, cicadas pose no threat to humans, lacking stinging or biting capabilities. Cicadas have a special organ called a tymbal that produces sound. The tymbal contains a series of ribs that buckle one after the other when the cicada flexes its muscles. Every time a rib buckles, the rib produces a click. Many clicks produce a buzzing sound. The action is like how a bendy straw makes sound: pulling and pushing the ribs of the bendy straw together makes a series of clicks. They can produce sounds as high as least 90 decibels, according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) states cicadas serve as a valuable food source for birds and contribute to soil nutrition upon decomposition. However, they can potentially harm young trees if females choose to lay eggs in them. They can also be beneficial to the ecosystem’s health, aerating soil and providing nutrients.
Cicadas do not carry disease and they cannot be effectively controlled by pesticides. For those in affected states, this may mean a particularly loud spring and early summer to come with a side of sweeping bug corpses off of sidewalks, roads, and driveways. It will be short-lived, so there is no need to worry. Most of them will have completed the loud portion of their lifecycle, mated, layed eggs, and died in June.
Depending on the weather and location, both cicada broods will likely emerge starting in mid-May and ending in late June. If the weather is consistently warm and dry, the cicadas will finish mating sooner rather than later, which would mean a shorter season. Typically, their lifespan is four to six weeks, and they will start to die off in late June.
“It’s a good excuse to get out in the woods and enjoy nature,” said Nancy Hinkle, a cicada enthusiast and professor of veterinary entomology at the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. “It’s something your kids will remember because it only happens every 17 years. There’s a good chance that the next time it happens, they can take their children out to see them.”
https://newswire.caes.uga.edu/story/6187/17-year-cicadas.html
