00:00Cicadas are here. They're driving Ariel and I nuts. When are they going to go?
00:07Soon. Soon. Most likely within the next two weeks. And when these insects come out,
00:12the adults are relatively short-lived, usually a period of roughly a month. And so once they
00:19come out, about a week later, you start getting all that noise. And then you've got about three
00:23to four weeks. And then they're going to be gone for 17 more years.
00:27Oh, thank God. That's 17 years, not long enough. They are not the cutest looking.
00:33They are. And I got to ask you this, Doctor. What are their predators? Who,
00:39for lack of a better word, I'm going to say, who eats them? It doesn't seem like I see any birds
00:45or any robins taking care of them. What are their natural predators?
00:49There's actually a lot of things that will eat them. That can include fish,
00:53a wide range of vertebrates on land. So terrestrial animals like raccoons, skunks,
00:59a wide range of birds will feed on these. So if you maybe have not seen that personally,
01:04it still is definitely happening out there. And actually, if you dig into the history books
01:09on these insects, humans have even used them as a food source. If you go back to records from the
01:141600s, it's well known that Native Americans have eaten these. I've tried them myself. And they're
01:21really kind of related to shrimp, if you think about it, from an evolutionary standpoint.
01:27I tried to make that the argument with my wife. It did not go very far.
01:31No. Okay. So why are they here? What do they do? And do they hurt people, pets, or property?
01:39Yeah. First off, really quite harmless. These are insects that have been around for millions of
01:44years. From their point of view, they are simply trying to perpetuate their species. And their
01:50strategy is to come out at these long time intervals, 17 years, that's going to make it
01:54harder, perhaps for predators to catch on to that pattern. When they come out, it's just a wild,
02:00crazy party for about a month. They come out, they're making a lot of noise. Those are the males
02:04singing to attract the females. They mate, they lay eggs, and then a short while later,
02:09those adults are dead and gone for 17 more years.
02:12Yeah. That's the noise. Yeah. All right. What can homeowners do to protect trees or keep cicadas
02:19out of yards and homes? Or is it just best to leave them alone?
02:24In my mind, it's really best to just kind of leave them be. It's a very short, ephemeral,
02:31I think it's a fascinating, amazing natural phenomenon to be able to witness this. For a given
02:36group of cicadas, you only have so many opportunities in your entire life to see these. So that's pretty
02:41cool from that scientific standpoint. In terms of threats to people and properties, really quite
02:47harmless. About the most damage they can do is when the females go to lay eggs, they'll cut slits
02:52into twigs of trees and shrubs and things like that. If you have a big tree in your yard, the tree
02:57is going to tolerate this damage just fine. The only situation I get concerned is if you maybe had a
03:02brand new tree or shrub you planted or a small one. In a situation like that, what I recommend to folks
03:08is cover that plant with some fine mesh netting. And you only need to do this for about a month
03:13when the cicadas are active. Once they're done and gone, you can take that netting off. But that's
03:18a good way to prevent some damage. Otherwise, not really much else you need to do.
03:23One more question. Sorry. When they're not flying around and making noise and mating,
03:27they're just underground, right? Or where are they going to be in the next 17 years?
03:31They spend most of their life down in the soil, in the dark. That's where the juveniles are
03:38developing. They're feeding on sap from tree roots. So they're down in the dark. There's no
03:42Netflix. All they have to eat is sap from trees. And then when they come up, they only have about a
03:48month, but it's a crazy party for them during that month or so. Wow. I have to hand it to you,
03:53doctor. You made cicadas fun. Yeah. And cool. And cool. Fun and cool.
03:58Made us feel like we were living through something, right? I'm going to be bragging
04:02to everybody about the cicada infestation in central Pennsylvania.
04:06That drove me nuts and it was like an apocalyptic sound for 24 hours. Doctor,
04:12thanks for joining us here. University of Wisconsin-Madison insect diagnostic lab. Again,
04:18thanks for joining us. A lot of great information.
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