A Month of Cicadas

We knew they were coming -- they do every 13 years -- but somehow we hoped they wouldn't come here. No such luck.  The periodic cicadas are back with a vengeance. Not to be confused with regular cicadas that sing in the trees each summer, periodic cicadas are special insects -- 100 times more dense and 1000 times more obnoxious.

Our ramp is particularly appealing

My first encounter with these bugs (which can't survive the Iowa cold) was back in the spring of 1998 when Chelsea and I were out planting flowers in the front yard. Chelsea asked me what made the  2-inch holes in the ground. I didn't know then, but according to this article, the holes were dug by nymph cicadas that had been underground for 13 years, before emerging from the ground to shed their skins, mate and lay eggs.

The cicadas did indeed come up from below and a few weeks later, the big old pine tree in our front yard was writhing with layers of the inch-long bugs.  Ron took a shovel and scraped off the rancid-smelling insects, then stowed them in black trash bags.

Tree captured by cicadas

I had conveniently forgotten about the cicadas until this week, when I noticed that the robins were eating something off the ground and seemed inexplicably happy. The reason: they were feasting on cicadas. When Chelsea got home from work that day she ran inside, slammed the door and screamed  "Cicadas are everywhere!"

She wasn't exaggerating: these ugly bugs have crawled up tree trunks, cover house foundations, and seem partial to our wooden ramp and the deck. Everything in our subdivision is speckled with live cicadas or their skins.

So far the pine tree hasn't proven overly attractive to the bugs, so I'm hopeful we won't have a return to the horror movie of 13 years ago. It only takes a month or them to complete the cycle of mating and laying eggs, but what a month!