The Cicadas Are A-Coming-- Part 2: The Females Do the Clicking

These two broods coming/came to Illinois have spent 13 or 17 years underground.

It is the females who click.  (I have now noticed that some of the cicadas I catch make the clicking sound and some don't.  Now I know which ones I'm dealing with.)

While underground munching on roots, they aerate the soil which is beneficial.

They start climbing/burrowing to the top when soil temperatures reach 64 degrees.  This is why they emerge sooner to the southern areas.  (We sure had lots of hype about them coming from the news stations.)

The last time the two broods have come at the same time was 1803.

For best cicada viewing and hearing go to Lake Forest and Highland Park in Lake County, Illinois.

Cicadas are one of the loudest living insects.

Lake County estimated to have 23 billion of the little critters.

Don't refer to them as locusts.  That makes them mad.

They had a Cicada Fest at Ryerson Woods on June 8.

--Cooter

The Cicadas Are A-Coming-- Part 1: May Meeting of the Fox Lake/Grant Township Historical Society

The May 18, 2024, Fox Lake/Grant Township Historical Society meeting featured a very timely talk by the Lake County Forest on "The Past, Present & Future of Cicadas."

We had been waiting and waiting for them to arrive, and guess what...  "They're Here!!"  But not everywhere.  The last week, I discovered lots of cicadas around two of my trees in the front yard.  The last time around for them, 17 years ago, I had none, but the house had been built in 1992 and my site was farmland, so not likely to get them.

In Illinois, there are two different types of cicadas: the 17-year and the 13-year.  We have the 17-year ones in Lake and McHenry counties.  13-year ones are mostly in the central and southern part of the state.  (There are also yearly cicadas, but not so numerous as the two broods out now.)

Across the world, there are 3,100 species of cicadas with 190 in North America.

Cicadas are easily the loudest of insects, able to emit 100 decibels of sound, about the level of a lawn mower.

--DaCoot