The Cicadas Are Coming! The Cicadas Are Coming! Should We Be Afraid?

Have you heard? The East Coast of the U.S. is about to experience a visit from billions… yes, BILLIONS of cicadas!  Should we be afraid? Or should we fire up the grill and invite them over for a barbecue? Well, first we need to figure out what the heck a cicada is.

Cicadas are large winged insect that lives in trees and tall grass, the male of which makes a shrill sound.

Theses creepy  insects, with bulging red eyes, will be crawling out of the earth after being underground for 17 years. They will arrive in such numbers that people from North Carolina to Connecticut will be out numbered some 600 to1, perhaps more!

It sounds like something out of a horror movie, (Can you say Aracnophobia?) however, scientists report that ‘Brood II’ (even the name of the infestation sounds ominous) is harmless to humans and animals, although they may damage a few saplings or young shrubs. They will blanket certain pockets of the region and many people won’t ever see them.

‘It’s not like hordes of cicadas suck the blood or zombify people’, says May Berenbaum, a University of Illinois entomologist.

They’re looking for just one thing…..sex. And they  have been waiting a very long time, at least by human standards. Since 1996, this group of bugs has been a few feet underground sucking on tree roots waiting for that magical moment. When the ground reaches precisely 64 degrees, they will emerge…and after  mating for a few weeks up in the trees…they will die and their offspring will go underground, not to return until 2030.

Like some humans, they will make a lot of noise during their mating ritual. When male cicadas sing for sex, they can rival a rock concert. They have been measured at 94 decibels…so loud you can't  hear planes flying overhead!

There are ordinary cicadas that come out every year, but these are different. They are called ‘magicicadas’…as in magic…and those bulging red eyes, are perhaps due to the nature of their activities.