© Marlene A. Condon
Because a large emergence of periodical cicadas is expected in May, you’ve probably heard a lot about it. Unfortunately, much of the publicity is negative when, in reality, the emergence of these insects is a spectacle of nature.
Periodical cicadas spend, depending upon the species, between 13 and 17 years in the nymph (immature) stage of development in Virginia. Going about their lives unseen beneath our feet, nymphs exist underground where they feed upon plant juices that they suck from roots.
Once the nymphs have reached maturity, they exit the soil to mate. These adults die soon afterwards, but the females will have left behind fertilized eggs. More than a decade later, the next generation of periodical cicadas will again enter our sphere of existence.
Most of a particular population will come out in one particular year, as has been predicted for 2013 in the Eastern United States. While these insects can be very loud when many thousands of males emerge and sing simultaneously, I disagree that their en masse singing constitutes a “substantial noise problem” that is “annoying.” Rather, it’s truly an other-worldly experience that should be considered quite marvelous!
The singing insects are not deafening. If you are in an area where you can clearly hear the chorus of cicadas without the interference of other sounds, you will feel as if you are in an outer-space movie. It’s amazing!
It’s sad that people don’t allow themselves to enjoy such a unique and uncommon phenomenon. On the other hand, I can see where it could be unpleasant to find thousands of these insects underfoot once they die. However, all you need to do is to move the dead insects away from the house to a less-trafficked area of the yard.
You can accomplish this chore by sweeping the bodies into a dust pan from patios or decks and delivering them to their final destination. If you need to remove them from the yard right around your house, you can use a rake to get the carcasses to where you want them.
By doing this, you allow Mother Nature to dispose of the remains by recycling them, as is supposed to happen. Numerous kinds of critters will come to feed on the bounty of dead animals and the bodies will be gone in no time.
Virtually every article tells us that cicadas will cause damage to trees, both large and small. The “damage” refers to brown twig tips and brown leaves that appear some time later.
The tips of tree branches die after female periodical cicadas make slits in them to hold their eggs. But the dead twig tips, even on small trees, are simply not a health problem.
People have become obsessed with the idea that the natural world basically needs to be made safe from itself! Goodness, how could trees have survived throughout the eons of time if this impact were as detrimental to them as entomologists and others would have you believe?
Yes, the brown tips may be aesthetically displeasing to human eyes, but the cosmetic manicuring of the natural world is nonsense that is truly disastrous for our environment. We need to get away from it.
The reality is that many of the tips will break off naturally on windy days. You may consider them to be “littering” your lawn. But they will not harm your grass and you can certainly rake them off to the side of the yard if you are so inclined.
But please, don’t remove them from the yard by sending them to a landfill or burning them. These twigs are important to many kinds of critters as well as to the proper functioning of your yard.
The twigs will provide food for animals, such as some kinds of grubs (immature beetles) and termites, whose job is to recycle wood. By keeping dead wood within your immediate environment, you don’t force these animals to look to your home as a food source.
When the wood-eating organisms defecate, they return to the soil some of the nutrients they obtained by eating the twigs. In other words, they fertilize your growing plants so you don’t need to do it.
These recyclers will themselves provide nutrients for the many species of birds (such as Pileated Woodpeckers), skunks, lizards, salamanders, and numerous other kinds of wildlife that will search for them.
The twigs that don’t fall off the trees thanks to the wind will be broken off by the kinds of birds and squirrels that need such small dead twigs to make their nests. They cannot reproduce without them.
Extension agents, landscapers, and pesticide applicators often cite problems where none really exists because they don’t see the big picture. My hope is that by way of this column, you now do.
Adults and children alike should take advantage of this somewhat rare opportunity to enjoy what is truly an impressive show put on by Mother Nature. Periodical cicadas are big insects that are easy to observe; they don’t bite or sting; they won’t come after you (although they may buzz right by you!); and they are remarkably colored with their black bodies, orange wing veins, and bright-red eyes.
We should appreciate the free entertainment provided by these creatures as well as their role in helping so many other organisms to survive.
Thank you for your article. The cicadas did not appear where we live in Albany, NY, but traveling south we heard a couple people complaining about the noise, and then a week later going south again we actually saw some dead cicadas on the ground. Very happy to read good things about them.
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