They have beady red eyes, a prehistoric look about them, and make a deafening noise. Sounds like something from a horror movie, right? Nah, it’s just the invasion of the cicadas.
Lucky us. We get the Brood X that will emerge from Virginia to Northeast Georgia. And they must be very smart little buggers because they know to emerge after 17 years and when the soil temperature is at 68 degrees. I guess if a groundhog like Yonah can be relied upon to predict a short winter or an early spring, far be it from us to second guess an insect that can tell time and temperature.
The good news is that “They don’t bite and cause very little damage,” according to Wayne Randall, the Agricultural Program Director for North Georgia Technical College.
They are not like locusts. They tend to gather on woody ornamentals, fruit trees, and ornamental trees. Cicadas deposit their eggs on the limbs of those trees. While they can cause some damage, it’s generally minimal, according to Dr. Randall.
“They are really just a nuisance,” Randall says, “they aren’t dangerous or poisonous just very loud.”
When I say loud, I mean LOUD. Screaming in all caps. I went through one of those invasions in Tennessee many years ago and the sound was deafening. Afterward, I was plucking off the cicada shells from trees and on the ground for days.
Randal says scientists have been tracking several varieties of cicadas for years.
“As an entomologist, I see this as a learning opportunity, especially for children and my students,” said Randall.
Were it not for the pandemic, he would have used this as a great learning experience for his students.
To sum it up, it’s been a strange year. A year of pandemic, murder hornets, and now cicadas. As they say, together we can beat this, but you might want to get out some earplugs. You’ll hear when they’re here!
