Arriving soon by the millions, cicadas will be looking for love
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The 17-year cicadas are coming again, millions of them, with their unnerving red eyes, orange wings and cacophonous mating song that can drown out the noise of passing jet planes.
For those who have an aversion to prawn-size, flying bugs, the next six weeks or so will be like a long horror-movie scene in large swaths of Ohio and West Virginia and slivers of Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland. Live long and burrow
In reality, though, cicadas are harmless and actually good for the environment. Their egg-laying in the trees is a natural pruning that results in increased growth, their burrowing aerates the ground, and their decaying bodies add nutrients to the soil.
Some other facts about them, compliments of Jim Fredericks, chief entomologist with the National Pest Management Association, and Gene Kritsky, a cicada expert at Cincinnati’s College of Mount St. Joseph:
When the soil warms up enough, cicadas emerge from the ground, where they’ve been sucking moisture from tree roots for the past 17 years. They’ll shed their exoskeletons, attach themselves to branches, mate and lay eggs before dying off in about six weeks. The hatched nymphs then will drop off the trees and burrow underground to live for an- other 17 years.
Amorous males attract mates by rapidly vibrating drumlike tymbals on the sides of their abdomen to produce sound. When millions of them are doing it at once, the din is deafening. Researchers who have measured the decibel level say it can be louder than a rock concert. Mmm, hors d’oeuvres
The plump creatures make for tasty treats for dogs and cats, “like Hershey’s Kisses falling from the sky,” as Kritsky says. Gobbling them up won’t hurt pets, unless they consume too many. Full of protein, gluten-free, lowfat and low-carb, cicadas were used as a food source by American Indians and are still eaten by humans in many countries, including China, where they are served deep-fried.
Kritsky says raw cicadas taste like cold canned asparagus. After work travels, he brings one back as a snack for his cat, Boudie.