We were in Athens, GA last week for my Grandson’s graduation. Our family had rented a lake house from which to commute and as we finally arrived and were getting out of the car, we noticed quite a racket.
“What’s that noise?” Nancy said. It sounded like a gazillion tree frogs, but it wasn’t. It was cicadas. They were everywhere – belly-up in the driveway, clinging to screen doors, crawling on walls, and making a big fuss all the while.
I have several distinct memories involving cicadas. One, when I was about 6, there was a swarm of cicadas that invaded Beckley, WV. They made so much noise, we had to close the schools for a few days. Back then, there was no air conditioning, and the windows were open in the schools and the sound was deafening.
My second recollection of cicadas was on a fishing trip I took with my close friend, Dave Gladwell. We were in Bedford County fishing a private lake stocked with huge rainbow trout. There were cicadas everywhere and that’s what the trout were feeding on. I had a big, black sculpin pattern in my vest that was close in size to the cicadas that were falling. I loaned Dave one of the flies and he caught a 14-pound rainbow trout, which held the state record for several years.
Two broods of periodical cicadas are now emerging across the US. This will be the first time in over 200 years that these two broods—out of almost 3,400 known species—will appear simultaneously.
While most cicadas surface annually, periodical cicadas burrow underground for up to 17 years, feeding off sap and roots before emerging once underground temperatures reach 64 degrees. Upon their debut, cicadas search for high ground, like trees, to shed their exoskeletons, mate loudly, lay eggs, and die, all in the span of four to six weeks. This year, trillions of cicadas from Broods XIX and XIII—underground for 13 and 17 years, respectively—are surfacing together for the first time since 1803, when Thomas Jefferson was president. Some have begun to appear, while others are expected to join in the coming days.
There is little geographic overlap between the two broods, which will emerge across the South and Midwest.
Cicadas in Virginia are scheduled to emerge later this month and into June. Since we were in Georgia, they were a bit ahead of us.
They won’t appear everywhere, but when they do emerge, you’ll definitely hear about it.