Brood XIV cicadas: what you need to know

AccuWeather

PJ Liesch, Director of the Insect Diagnostic Lab at University of Wisconsin-Madison, explains everything you need to know about the sudden onset of cicadas in certain parts of the country this summer.

Transcript

00:00These are insects that have been around for millions of years. From their point of view,

00:05they are simply trying to perpetuate their species. And their strategy is to come out at

00:10these long time intervals, 17 years, that's going to make it harder, perhaps for predators to catch

00:16on to that pattern. When they come out, it's just a wild, crazy party for about a month. They come

00:22out, they're making a lot of noise. Those are the males singing to attract the females.

00:25They mate, they lay eggs, and then a short while later,

00:30those adults are dead and gone for 17 more years.

00:34I think it's a fascinating, amazing natural phenomenon to be able to witness this. For a

00:39given group of cicadas, you only have so many opportunities in your entire life to see these,

00:44so that's pretty cool from that scientific standpoint. There's actually a lot of things

00:48that will eat them. That can include fish, a wide range of vertebrates on land, so terrestrial

00:54animals like raccoons, skunks, a wide range of birds. In terms of threats to people and properties,

01:01really quite harmless. About the most damage they can do is when the females go to lay eggs,

01:06they'll cut slits into twigs of trees and shrubs and things like that. If you have a big tree in

01:11your yard, the tree is going to tolerate this damage just fine. The only situation I get concerned

01:16is if you maybe had a brand new tree or shrub you planted, or a small one. In a situation like

01:21that, what I recommend to folks is cover that plant with some fine mesh netting. That's a good way to

01:27prevent some damage. Otherwise, not really much else you need to do.

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