Magicicada, Brood XIX

The 13-year cicadas started hatching out at our place last night. Andrew, came home late after attending the farm dinner held at La Residence in Chapel Hill, featuring the good food of Hickory Mountain Farm, his place of employment. He said our retaining wall was covered with bugs emerging from their exoskeletons.

Here's what Al Cooke, our local agriculture extension agent, had to say about them ... illustrated with my photos:

"I am not the last word on identifying insects. But I have seen at least one cicada today and have had several more calls about cicadas this week. And it is well known among cicada watchers that Brood XIX of the 13 year cicada is primed to hatch. It was reported in Georgia last week and in Greensboro as recently as yesterday (4/27). (I had a local report via email on 4/25.)

While we don’t normally expect them to show up till about a month from now, I strongly suspect that the cicada reports are accurate and that Brood XIX, perhaps the largest brood of Magicicada spp., is arriving. What that means depends on whether and how you appreciate the real world even if it’s loud enough to drown out your TV – what pleasant thought!

Cicadas are relatively large insects with transparent wings held tent like over the body. Some cicadas show up every year, usually in late summer. Then we have the curious periodical cicadas that show up in certain areas every 13 or 17 years.

After the immature cicada spends all those years in the soil, it crawls out to latch onto some solid object and complete its maturation by splitting its skin and emerging as an adult.

The adults are “hungry” but have little interest in food. Rather the males will start to sing loudly for the females – sort of like the troubadours of the middle ages. Sort of. The lucky females will soon be splitting the bark on young twigs of deciduous trees on which to lay eggs. This damage to the twigs may cause some of them to die, but the injury is usually inconsequential.

When the eggs hatch in about 6-8 weeks, the young larvae burrow into the soil where they will spend most of their lives. The brood that is emerging now burrowed down in 1998. Remember them? Remember what you were doing to the tunes of The Cicadas in ’98? Enjoy them again, because they won’t be back until 2024.

Meanwhile, it is neither practical nor desirable to do anything about them. The damage done to healthy trees is minimal. For trees or shrubs that are young, recently planted, or of unusual value, they may be protected with fine netting such as mosquito netting or with repeated applications of an insecticide such as Sevin. But it’s probably better to just sit on the porch of an evening with your favorite beverage and enjoy the music. For some of us older geezers it may be the last chance to hear Brood XIX. But we hope you younger folk will help continue an old tradition. People do still have porches don’t you? It’s a good time to set a pattern for the summer. Spend time on the porch listening and watching something that doesn’t have an on/off switch."