If a person wakes up one warm summer morning and hears a noise outside their window like a thousand tiny lawnmowers going at full blast, it’s almost certainly a swarm of brand new adult cicadas.

Cicada Brood X News & Information

Brood X is currently (spring 2021) emerging on the east coast of the United States. More information and coverage can be found here!

• Cicadas in New York: What’s Happening Now?
• Cicadas in Pennsylvania: What’s Happening Now?
• Cicadas in Virginia: What’s Happening Now?
• Cicadas in Tennessee: What’s Happening Now?
• Cicadas in Washington, DC: What’s Happening Now?
• Cicadas in Maryland: What’s Happening Now?
• Here’s What 1.5 Million Cicadas Looks Like
• Will Cicadas Cause More Snakes? Copperheads?
• Can Dogs Eat Cicadas?
• Will Cicadas Eat My Tomato Plants?
• Cicada Brood X 2021: What is it and should you be concerned?
• Why Do Cicadas Only Come Out Every 17 Years?
• Cicadas vs Locusts: What’s The Difference?

Cicadas are interesting not just because of the racket they make, but because periodical cicadas have a life cycle of 13 or 17 years. Most of their lives are spent underground as nymphs, then something triggers them to emerge, climb a tree or a wall or some surface, split their skin, and emerge from the shell to become adults. After this, their only tasks are to reproduce and die.

5 Incredible Cicada Facts!

• Deciduous trees are necessary for a good population of these insects. Their roots not only provide food for the nymphs but they’re important for egg-laying, molting, and singing.
• The unusually loud noise produced by a male can reach 120 decibels if heard up close. That’s loud enough to make the ears hurt.
• It’s not only humans who need to protect their ears from the loudness of the insect’s song. When a male sings, he has to close his tympana, which functions much like human ears, to keep them from being damaged.
• Scientists group periodical cicadas into broods based on their 13 or 17-year life cycle. As of 2021, there were 15 of these broods.
• After spending years underground, the adult insect lives only a few weeks. Many don’t even live that long, as they are eaten by predators such as birds and a wasp called the cicada killer. Even humans eat them. In some cultures, the insect is a delicacy.

Cicadas vs. Locust

Though they’re sometimes called locusts, these insects are not closely related to them. Locusts, the name given to grasshoppers that have joined swarms that attack crops, belong to the Orthoptera order. Cicadas belong to the Hemiptera order and are considered true bugs. A bug is an insect with mouthparts for sucking and piercing. The insect nymph’s mouth parts are made for piercing tree roots and sucking sap, and the proboscis of a grown cicada can pierce a person’s skin, but these insects are neither venomous nor disease vectors.

Locusts have chewing mouthparts and, famously, hind legs that are adapted for jumping. Cicadas not only can’t jump the way locusts do, but they also don’t even run or walk well. If they need to go somewhere, they almost always fly.

Cicada Species, Types, and Scientific Name

The periodical cicadas belong to the Magicicada genus, and the name refers to the way the insects appear like magic. Then, like magic, they disappear all at once. The name “cicada” is from Latin and allegedly describes the sound the insect makes.

There are seven species of periodical cicadas. The first three of the species emerge after 17 years, while the other four emerge after 13 years. They are:

• the 17 year “locust” — Magicicada septendecim
• the 17 year dwarf periodical cicada — M. cassinii
• M. septendecula
• M. tredecim
• M. neotredecim
• M. tredecassini
• M. tredecula

Appearance: How To Identify Cicadas

The periodical cicada is a rather large insect, though it’s smaller than the annual cicada, which can be 2 inches long. It is much smaller than the largest cicada. This is Malaysian emperor cicada, with an 8-inch wingspan. Periodical cicadas are between 0.9 and 1.3 inches long, and the females are a bit bigger than the males.

Like most other insects, the insect has six legs. A person can see through their wings, which sport lacy orange veins. The insect’s thorax, or the middle section of its body, is usually black, and the abdomen can be orange, black, or orange and black striped. The insect has conspicuous red eyes.

Many of them avoid predators through camouflage or through Batesian mimicry. This is where their colors remind a predator of a harmful insect such as a wasp. These insects are capable of lowering the volume of its song or turning it off altogether if it senses a predator is nearby.

Periodical cicadas can be said to swarm. These individuals are most interested in reproducing, and males will mate with several females. When the adults emerge, they leave their old shell behind on a wall or a tree trunk. Sometimes the shell lasts longer than the insect itself.

Habitat: Where to Find Cicadas

These insects are found all over the world, but periodical cicadas are found in the eastern and central parts of North America. Another family, the Tettigarctidae, is found in Australia.

Periodical cicadas are found in deciduous forests. These are forests made up of hardwood trees such as oaks, maples, and willows. Periodical cicadas emerge every 13 or 17 years, but even annual cicadas may not emerge every year as their name suggests. Some annual cicadas have a lifecycle of two years while others have a life cycle as long as a decade. Annual cicadas also don’t synchronize their broods the way periodical cicadas do, so they usually don’t swarm like periodicals.

Diet: What Do Cicadas Eat?

The nymphs drink the sap from the roots of deciduous trees the long years they are underground. Though many people believe that adults don’t eat, they’ve been seen to suck sap from plants.

Prevention: How to Get Rid of Cicadas

These insects are considered to be harmless. They don’t sting or spread diseases, even though a jab from their mouthparts can hurt. If a person is worried about the insects invading their garden, they can cover their plants with garden fleece to both dissuade the insects from feeding and the females from laying their eggs. The females cut slits in branches then deposit their eggs in them. This may injure a young shrub or tree.

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