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6/4/2021

Year of the Cicada

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PictureThe Brood X cicada is descending on the eastern U.S., from Illinois to New York and south to Georgia. Photos by David Hoefer.
David Hoefer of Louisville, Ky., the co-editor of The Last Resort, examines our latest plague. If you would like to submit a post to ​Clearing the Fog, please contact us here.

They’re here. In fact, they’re everywhere—gazillions of them. They’ve come up from holes in the ground, where they spent 17 years sucking nutrients from plant roots in the dark, biding their time until nature called them to invasion.

With their cellophane wings and bulbous red eyes they look like something out of an Old Testament plague or maybe next-of-kin to the “Bug-eyed Monsters” (BEMs) that infested the covers of science-fiction pulp magazines from mid-20th century America.
 
And the racket—an incessant loud thrumming from high in the air, as though alien spacecraft were massing behind tree cover or Saruman the White was working up his war engines, as described by Tolkien in The Lord of the Rings. Reportedly, that racket can raise noise levels in neighborhoods up to 100 decibels.

What am I going on about? Why the 2021 vintage of Brood X cicadas, of course. 

You likely know the story by now. Brood X is number ten of 15 groups of periodical cicadas resident in eastern North America. It consists of three species and is the largest and most widespread of its kind. Brood X nymphs tunnel up from their underground lairs every 17 years, once soil temperatures reach 64 degrees Fahrenheit. They shed their exoskeletons, briefly taking on a final adult form. What follows is a furious few weeks of them discharging their Darwinian duty—flying, mating, laying eggs in the trees, and dying. And, yes, all that noisemaking—the male’s monochromatic version of a mating song. Brood X cicadas are estimated to emerge in the trillions, and species survival depends on it, because these defenseless insects make easy prey for a variety of birds and other hungry creatures (including my dog, who wolfs them down like a human chomping on potato chips—a protein supplement, I suppose). 

In the meantime, cicadas are as common as hydrogen, and getting into everything. You name it and they‘re on it—clothing, hair, cars, furniture, rugs, sidewalks, houses, and every other manifestation of human culture. Their weird insect noises and alien ugliness make them unwanted guests, but the fact is, unlike last year’s virus, they’re perfectly harmless. Brood X cicadas may be the ultimate proving ground for the philosophical notion of “live and let live.”

Kentucky is not actually at the epicenter of Brood X, but the bugs are certainly present and accounted for in the Bluegrass State (including in great numbers in my treelined yard). Entomologists see this North American version of a locust visitation in effect until mid-July, when the survivors will begin a new 17-year cycle of root-sucking and apocalyptic emergence and transformation. The best we can do for now is batten down the hatches and learn to live with one of nature’s stranger life utterances. 

If you’re inclined toward more active observation, I can suggest an interesting application that is downloadable to iPhone and Android devices. Developed by an academic at Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati and called Cicada Safari, it enables Joe and Josephine Test-tube to take on a citizen-scientist role during the Brood X interval by documenting local cicada activity with photographs and videos and posting them to an ever-growing database curated by the application’s sponsors. I’ve enjoyed running around my neighborhood looking for interesting shots, once I got over my initial repulsion. 

Just remember: the cicadas probably find us at least as hideous to contemplate. 


Addendum

There is no mention of cicadas in The Last Resort, which makes me think that John Goodlett didn’t observe them in the Lawrenceburg environs during 1942-43. Brood X outbreaks would have occurred in 1936 and 1953, outside of the journal’s timespan. But there are other broods on different schedules, waiting for long periods to climb into the light and then share the world with us, if only briefly. 
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A swarm of cicadas, in Louisville, Ky.

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11 Comments
Tessa Hoggard
6/5/2021 06:50:46 pm

David, thanks for educating us on the amazing cicadas! Their life cycle is truly miraculous, emerging every 17 years after feasting on the nutrients of tree roots and then yielding themselves as feast to other creatures including humans! We're blessed that nature holds many lessons for us to learn. Until their next emergence from earth's vast riches, ci u later cada!

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Joan Cullen link
6/6/2021 09:17:24 pm

Cicada jokes? I thought there would tons of them out there by now.
If my brother, Philip, were here he would be sharing lots of jokes.

From the cicadas point of view:

"Hey, crunchy (to the right). Is it my imagination, but does it seem it is even a bigger hassle trying to avoid the triathletes on the roads and trails this cycle around

Watch out...bird incoming,,,, sorry mate.

Hey, crunchy (to the left),. Is it my imagine that there a more triathletes on the roads and trails this cycle around trying to spoil a parfectly good breeds season....watch out.... sorry mate...."

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Sallie Showalter
6/6/2021 11:31:59 pm

Clearly, Joan, you are stepping up to the plate in Philip's absence! Bless you, my friend. Carry on!

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Joan Cullen
6/7/2021 10:45:07 pm

We were fortunate to experience Brood x this year, again, in the highlands of louisville. It could have been a once in a lifetime event back in 2004. Thankfully, I am experiencing it again. I hope to be lucky enough, next time, when I will be 83 years old.
It's awesome. Better than a solar eclipse that lasts seconds. This lasts a month! How cool is that!
As I try to avoid stepping on the increasing number of dead and dying bugs, I really hope each and every one is a happy, successful cicada, that found their perfect mate, for a minute or two at least... after 18 years.
This wish, however, may only last until I see the damage to my trees and bushes....

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Joe Ford
6/9/2021 11:14:23 pm

Thanks David,

I rather enjoy the little buggers.
Connect us to a natural rhythm and all that.

‘Cept when they crawl in my ear.
Or crash kamikaze-like into my (ever expanding) forehead.
Or land with their prickly legs on my neck.

I hate the ghastly red-eyed little monsters.

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Sallie Showalter
6/9/2021 11:25:32 pm

Oh, I needed a good laugh! Thank you, Joe.

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Bob Patrick
6/10/2021 08:13:05 am

Thanks Sallie -- great tour through the science of Brood X. Growing up in Iowa it seemed that cicadas were with us practically every year. Recall collecting the abandoned skins from tree trunks. There are large wasps we called cicada killers (don't know the correct name) that can catch a cicada in mid flight. Pretty amazing if you happen to see it.

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Joan Cullen
6/10/2021 11:22:20 pm

Dear Joe Ford,

Thank you for your feedback concerning our 17 year spring reunion event. We strive hard to meet expectations.

We regret you didn't enjoy the gentle touch, tickling, caressing of cicada appendages on your neck. Some folks spend good money for a similar experience at health spas. Since it was free, no refund should be expected. We hope you will reconsider trying our service again in 17 years.

Please keep your car windows closed. We have had several complaints from our community that you were not staying in your lane and open windows.

We sincerely regret about your hitting your face,. All of us are pretty new on flying side. Mum and dad were no help. It was a one minute or less stand.

We also regret that that we did not meet your expectations. They didn't meet ours either. You appeared to have cut down or moved several favorite trees and bushes since 2004!

Sincerely,
Cicada Community Union, highlands post
Founded, 120 million years ago


Reply
cicada Community Union
6/12/2021 09:24:57 pm

Dear Highlands cousins,

It is good to hear that you are UP and OUT, right on schedule.

Joe Ford passed along your comments. We are a little more rough and tumble over hear in Crescent Hill.

I mean, we’ve been sucking on dirt and tree roots for seventeen years. I got business to attend to and only a few days to attend to it. These people need to understand we are on a mission and in a hurry. If we crash into a few of them, or get tangled in their hair, or crawl up their pale scrawny little neck mistaking them for stems, so be it. Collateral damage.

See comment on 17 years, previous paragraph. 17!

We don’t bite or sting. That should be good enough, don’t ya think? I agree with your observation that we are kind of new to the flying thing and that produces a few unintended crashes.

Also note that we grew up in households with NO parents. Dysfunction junction.

Just dreaming about the glorious ritual to come. So we are a bit nervous and anxious and unsteady… and unsure if we are, you know, doing it right.

My message to them: OUT OF OUR WAY! It’s our time to shine. NO APOLOGIES.

See comments on 17 years, above.

Sincerely,
Cicada Community Union, Crescent Hill post

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Cicada Community Union, highlands post
6/13/2021 09:53:41 pm

We hear you! Crescent Hill, Post, or we would, if our guys would just take a break. But you know how it is. Competition is fierce. The humming of lawnmowers and weed-eaters seems irresistible to the cicaderettes.

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Cicada Community Union, highlands post
6/13/2021 11:10:02 pm

We thought about calling a strike. Force folks to appreciate all we do for the environment, and what we don't do to the environment. Not a poof of additional methane gas since we don't eat anything.
additional nitrogen to soils is another matter. Some Gardener's seem to like it.

But with biological limitations and imperatives, not much chance our members would go for a strike. So we just have to rely on education between now and 2036.. Like that Dave Hoefer, Hannah, and Sallie. A lot of folks are still in the grub phase, like that Joe and Joan. But they have potential. Bless their hearts.....

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    Between the debilitating effects of age and the 24-hour crush of mind-bending news, my brain is frequently in a fog. Nonetheless. I'll occasionally try to sweep aside the ashy gray matter and shed some light on what's going on at Murky Press. Perhaps together we can also gain a little insight into how we can better use words to organize and clarify the world around us.

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    Sallie Showalter, Murky Press 

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