Cicada Facts
Bobby Smith '22 Staff Writer
After 17 years, a new generation of cicadas, also known as a brood, has emerged from the ground. This new brood of cicadas has been referred to as Brood X. A brood emerges in a different region of the United States each year. There are 17 total broods; one for each year of the cicadas’s cycle. This brood is the 10th and most widespread of them all. According to the CBS News Article “What is Brood X, the U.S. cicada infestation coming in 2021?” by Fox Van Allen, “Brood X is endemic to much of Indiana, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, Delaware and Eastern Tennessee.” Along with these pieces of information, there are other facts that one might find interesting about Brood X’s infestation.
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ELLICOTT CITY, MD, 20 MAY 2021 - A cicada sitting still on the sidewalk, possibly playing dead. B. SMITH/LION’S TALE
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One important thing to know about cicadas is that they should not be eaten by dogs. While they aren’t fatally toxic to dogs and therefore won’t kill them, cicadas will give dogs gastrointestinal inflammation and irritation. This usually happens after eating one or two cicadas, and it can also be caused by eating a stick or something else dogs don’t normally eat. If a dog eats many cicadas, it will get a gastrointestinal obstruction and possibly vomit, have diarrhea or experience lethargy. Dogs being taken on walks should be observed carefully to make sure they aren’t eating any cicadas and to prevent them from experiencing gastrointestinal illnesses.
People should also be on the lookout for one of the cicada’s many predators, the Sphecius, or the Cicada Killer Wasp. Their method of preying on cicadas involves them stinging their prey with a paralyzing venom and carrying the cicada back to their burrows. There are many different types of Cicada Killer Wasps, and the ones which live in the east and midwest United States are known as the Sphesius Speciosus, or the Eastern Cicada Killer. While they are noticeably bigger than other wasps and may appear frightening, these wasps will not attack humans unless they feel provoked. The venom from their stingers may paralyze cicadas, but it does not have the same effect on humans. In fact, the author of an article titled “Cicada Killer Control” likens their stings to the tiniest pin prick.
Cicadas are commonly confused with locusts. They both sometimes form into groups called plagues and are both herbivores. However, cicadas don’t feast on crops like locusts do. Young cicadas, also known as nymphs, typically bite holes in the roots of a plant to drink it’s sap, while older cicadas feed on sap from twigs and shrubbery. It’s unlikely that they will have any interest in a person’s vegetable garden or flowers, so they don’t need to be protected from the cicadas.
People should also be on the lookout for one of the cicada’s many predators, the Sphecius, or the Cicada Killer Wasp. Their method of preying on cicadas involves them stinging their prey with a paralyzing venom and carrying the cicada back to their burrows. There are many different types of Cicada Killer Wasps, and the ones which live in the east and midwest United States are known as the Sphesius Speciosus, or the Eastern Cicada Killer. While they are noticeably bigger than other wasps and may appear frightening, these wasps will not attack humans unless they feel provoked. The venom from their stingers may paralyze cicadas, but it does not have the same effect on humans. In fact, the author of an article titled “Cicada Killer Control” likens their stings to the tiniest pin prick.
Cicadas are commonly confused with locusts. They both sometimes form into groups called plagues and are both herbivores. However, cicadas don’t feast on crops like locusts do. Young cicadas, also known as nymphs, typically bite holes in the roots of a plant to drink it’s sap, while older cicadas feed on sap from twigs and shrubbery. It’s unlikely that they will have any interest in a person’s vegetable garden or flowers, so they don’t need to be protected from the cicadas.
ELLICOTT CITY, MD, 21 MAY 2021 - A cicada shedding its skin, accompanied by another cicada and an empty shell. B. SMITH/LION’S TALE
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With the booming population of cicadas, their predators will be greeted with a bountiful amount of food right in front of them for the taking. So how has the cicada population been able to remain so high during these weeks? Well, there are two main reasons for this. For one thing, the aforementioned cicada population increase may overwhelm their predators. Cicada Killers get full just like humans, and won’t be able to take another bite once they do get full. This will leave the cicada population still very large. The other reason is that their seventeen-year increments allow them to avoid predators. In the Smithsonian Magazine article “14 Fun Facts About Cicadas” by Alex Fox, the author states that “the idea is that by popping out of the ground only in prime numbered intervals, periodical cicadas avoid ever synching up with booming populations of predators, which tend to rise and fall on two to ten year cycles.” In short, their seventeen year cycles are the main contributor to why their population got so high in the first place this spring.
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