What DO cicadas do? Everything you need to know about sex-crazed insects as emergence begins across the US

Trillions of dormant, sex-crazed crickets are expected to reemerge in the US starting this month in an insect event not seen in more than 200 years.

For the first time since 1803, the odd-numbered, 13- to 17-year cycles of two different large cicada broods will finally intersect — unleashing a deafening, noisy mating season for these insects in more than a dozen U.S. states.

Cicada experts say the two North American variants of the species can produce an alarming call as loud as 105.9 decibels, or “as loud as a lawnmower.”

Dogs and cats can also get sick if pet owners aren’t careful.

But while the bizarre, noisy creatures are already prompting 911 calls for their plague-like Biblical swarms, and raising alarms about their unique fungal parasites, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency notes that crickets provide important ecological benefits.

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Cicadas are a valuable food source for birds and other predators,” the U.S. EPA said.

And through the burrows that young “nymphs” dig to avoid predators and feed on sap from tree roots, “crickets can aerate lawns and improve water filtration in the soil,” according to the EPA.

Here’s what crickets are likely to do during this historic summer surge.

Cicadas make a lot of noise

“When they say it’s as loud as a lawn mower, it’s as loud as a lawn mower,” Dr. Paula Shrewsbury, a professor of entomology at the University of Maryland, said of the insects’ noise.

‘We live near an airport, and when the planes fly over […] crickets increase their noise levels,” Shrewsbury said CNN in April “it’s like they’re competing with the planes for noise.”

Although cicada songs vary between species, the sounds always play a crucial role in the communication, reproduction and even defense of each variety of the insect.

But it’s the cicadas’ mating call that Americans can most expect to hear this year.

Male crickets produce their loud, high-pitched whine late into the night as they attract mates, with thin, ribbed parts of their exoskeleton – called tymbals – vibrating at an astonishing speed of 300 to 400 sound waves per second.

The sound, sometimes described as a pulsating buzz similar to salt and pepper shakers and sometimes a piercing whine, is amplified by the male crickets’ hollow abdomen, which helps create a powerful echo effect.

As the male crickets gather in trees to attract mates, their combined activity forms a dissonant and shrill chorus heated by their sexual passions.

“Females also make sounds to attract males,” said Arizona State University biologists, “but they use their wings to make a clicking sound, rather than a high-pitched song like the males.”

Cicadas create a feeding frenzy for birds

When the last major influx of cicadas emerged, the so-called Brood

This ‘all you can eat’ buffet literally changed the behavior and diet of the birds studied that year.

Cardinals, blue jays, wrens, crested chickadees and woodpeckers all abandoned their usual habits. Some avoided their once-favorite bird feeders in the suburbs and others stopped eating caterpillars whose populations rebounded in North America’s oak forests.

‘Our findings really show how […] plants, animals and organisms of all kinds are all deeply connected,” Zoe Getman-Pickering, a former researcher at George Washington University, said of her team’s discovery, published in Science.

“If you change the behavior or population of any of those organisms,” she noted, “the effects ripple through the ecosystem in surprising ways.”

Some researchers, including ecologist Brian Evans, hope to learn more about how birds communicate with each other as their songs change to warn others about the insect smörgåsbord.

“This is a great opportunity to see how birds respond to the appearance of the once-in-17-year cicadas,” Evans said. Smithsonian during the last big turnout.

‘Bird songs can change in response to the volume of the cicada calls and […] The success of the nest could change thanks to all this new food in the environment,” he hypothesized.

Watch out for your pets!

Ironically, the same abundance that makes crickets a treat for wild birds makes them a small risk to pets.

Both dogs and cats can become ill from the insects as they tend to eat too many of them if left unattended.

According to veterinarian Mark Freeman, who teaches at the Virginia Tech College of Veterinary Medicine, the beetle’s robust exoskeleton is too heavy for these pets’ digestion.

‘Eating crickets can result in varying degrees of GI [gastro-intestinal] symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhea, stomach and intestinal pain, and even the possibility of an obstruction if they ingest too many shells and then can’t get through,” Freeman told Campus news from VT.

The veterinary professor recommended that both dogs and cats be allowed a few crickets as a treat.

Cicadas are good for the soil, lawns and groundwater

American Geophysical Union research after the 2021 Brood is filtered and filtered. penetration.

But those benefits only occurred in locations undisturbed by human activity, the researchers found.

“We saw infiltration rates decrease over time as the holes filled with sediment and debris,” Indiana University geographer Ellen Bergan reported at the time, “but we saw a more rapid decline in infiltration at disturbed sites.”

However, this aeration activity of cicada burrows is only one benefit.

Although the young cicada ‘nymphs’ feed parasitically on tree roots, the insects eventually return at the end of their life cycle.

“Their bodies serve as an important source of nitrogen for growing trees,” according to the National Wildlife Federation, with similar benefits to grassy lawns.