Cicada Season

By PJ Martin

Editor

The Herald-News

 

It is the year for cicadas to emerge from the ground. As a matter of fact, it should be a booming year for them as the 13 and 17-cycle types both emerge in 2024 and that only happens every 221 years. But will it happen in south-central Kentucky?

First, what are cicadas, what do they look like, and what kinds of problems do they cause?

According to the University of Connecticut Biodiversity Research Collection 2024 is a special year for cicadas because:

• For the first time since 2015, a 13-year brood will emerge in the same year as a 17-year brood.
• For the first time since 1998, adjacent 13-and 17-year broods will emerge in the same year.
• For the first time since 1803 Brood XIX and XIII will co-emerge.
• You will be able to see all seven named periodical cicada species as adults in the same year, which will not happen again until 2037.

Most of us recognize those empty insect-shaped shells that can be found on trees and shrubs. We are also familiar with the high-pitched nerve-irritating sound the cicadas produce, but how do they make that annoying sound? Male cicadas use membranes in their abdomen known as tymbals to generate distinct mating calls for females and according to research it can reach a noise level of 90 dBA. That is equal to the sound level of a lawnmower.

Scientists divide the 3,000 species of cicadas into two groups called annual and periodical. The annual types usually emerge from the ground around July each summer season. There are seven periodical types, and they emerge at 13 or 17-year intervals and they only live in the central and the eastern part of the US.

In a WEKU article University of Kentucky, entomologist Jonathan Larson explained the difference in the annual and periodical years like this, “Annual Cicadas…run into the hundreds of thousands while it might be a billion coming out of the ground during the periodic emergence.”

Life Cycle

Cicadas start as eggs. Females lay 200 to 400 eggs usually in a small cut they make in the branch of a tree or shrub. After 6 – 10 weeks, a nymph (baby cicada) hatches from the egg and immediately falls to the ground where it burrows underground.

Cicadas don’t have a mouth, they have a long, straw-like tube that helps them drink fluids. That is how they attach to the tree roots and drink the fluids from the tree. The periodical species stays buried for 13 – 17 years (depending on the species) and feeds on the tree sap. This is called the dormant period.

Each May when the correct number of years have passed, the cicadas emerge from the ground at sunset, climb the trunk of a tree or shrub, and shed their skin. Now they are adult cicadas.

The males begin to call to the females (making that annoying sound), they mate and the female lays eggs. Both male and female cicadas will die approximately 5 weeks after they first emerge from the ground.

Even though they emerge by the 10s of thousands, they are not harmful. They do not sting or bite and they don’t feed on your crops like grasshoppers. Although the loud high-pitched sound they make can be very irritating.

Back to the question of whether they will affect south-central Kentucky. According to the US Forestry data, this year’s Brood XIX and Brood XIII will not affect our area. South-central Kentucky is not due for a cicada emergence until 2025 when brood XIV will emerge after being dormant for 17 years. That wave will cover the majority of Kentucky, so get those ear plugs ready.