Listen, can you hear them?

Have you heard them? They are here but they won’t be for much longer. I am talking about the Periodical Cicadas. They have been around for a few weeks now but since they only live 4-5 weeks they will soon be gone.

I don’t know if you hear them everywhere in the Glade but you sure can up around my house. The 1 ½ inch long insects are loud. Depending on the species they make several different sounds…some make a series of clicks and buzzes, some sound like a water sprinkler, and some make a sound like the word “pharaoh” extended. These are male cicadas calling females to join them for a bottle of wine, some candlelight and a good time. Interested females respond with a little wing flick, kind of like a wink. And they are calling vigorously because they have waited 17 years for one night of romance.

Periodical cicadas have an amazing life cycle. Once the adults mate and the females lay their eggs in pencil sized twigs their job is over and they die. The eggs hatch in a few weeks and the tiny ant sized nymphs emerge from the twig, drop the ground and tunnel down 18-24 inches to suck sap from tree roots for the next 17 years. Even thousands of cicadas do little to no damage to the tree. After 17 years the nymphs dig to the surface (in mid-May in Tennessee), crawl up on any nearby vertical surface and break out of their nymphal skin to emerge as adults to begin the cycle all over again. Amazing!

The cicadas here this year are Brood number 14 (technically Roman numeral brood XIV) of the 17-year cicadas. There is also another race of cicadas that are 13-year cicadas. Tennessee has both races of cicadas. You don’t have to wait 13 or 17 years to see and hear periodical cicadas again because different broods emerge in different years. The next big year for cicadas here in Cumberland County is 2011 for Brood XIX of the 13-year cicada race. There are other cicada species that emerge annually late in the summer every year, but not anywhere near the great numbers of the periodical cicadas. The annual cicadas have a ten second long high-pitched whine that you can hear in August.

I remember about 7 or 8 years ago I was in Washington, D.C. when an especially large periodical cicada brood emerged there. Cicadas were everywhere! They were climbing up anything not moving (including humans) flying into people, and generally just scaring the heck out of everyone. Their big red eyes might look scary but Cicadas are harmless; they don’t bite or sting.

Early settlers to North America thought the periodical cicadas, which are only found in eastern North America, were plagues of locusts coming to eat their crops. The name has stuck in many places but cicadas are not locusts. Locusts are actually a type of grasshopper and do not look anything like cicadas. Pesticides have little or no effect on cicadas because they don’t eat vegetation. The adults only eat small amounts of sap during their short time above ground.

There is one way you can control cicadas in a very limited way…eat them! That is right, eat them. Birds, squirrels, snakes, fish, mammals, even dogs and cats love them. Any why not, cicadas are high in protein, low in fat, and have no carbs. People say they taste crispy, crunchy, and nutty. They are said to be especially good sautéed in butter with garlic and basil. I would recommend a nice cool bottle of California Chablis with that.

The 17-year periodical cicadas will be gone in a week or two. So enjoy them while you can. Go out and look for the empty beige nymphal skins on tree trunks or the beautiful red-eyed adults on vegetation. If you are still here in 2025 you can look for the sons and daughters of the cicadas that are here now. Mark your calendar so you don’t forget.