Valley Girl Views: The Periodical Cicadas

The 17 year Periodical Cicadas of Brood X are expected to emerge from the ground in May of 2021.

In late summer, it is not uncommon to hear the loud buzzing of an occasional cicada. Those are annual cicadas, and they are not the cicadas we are expecting to emerge any time now, here on the east coast in May 2021.

What is coming soon is what are known as "Periodical Cicadas". These are smaller cicadas, and they live almost their entire life burrowed in the ground. Then, at the end of their life cycle they emerge from the ground, mate and lay eggs for 4-6 weeks, then die.

There are two types of Periodical Cicadas - 13 year, and 17 year. And there are many broods of each type - so there may be a brood of 17 year cicadas emerging one year, and another brood emerging a year or so later. Periodical cicadas only live in the eastern part of the United States. They will be seen from Tennessee to New York, but nowhere else in the world.

The Philadelphia Times, 1893

Brood X, emerging in May of 2021, is the largest of all of the documented broods.

Brood X Emergence Years:

2021, 2004, 1987, 1970, 1953, 1936, 1919, 1902, 1885, 1868, 1851, 1834, 1817, 1800, 1783, 1766, 1749, 1732, 1715

The Miltonian, 1906

Although Cicadas are not actually locusts, historically they have been called locusts, or the "17 year harvest fly".

For the past 17 years, cicadas have been living under ground, tunneling and feeding beneath the soil. This year, 2021, when the ground temperature reaches between 64-68 degrees, the cicadas will emerge. A few may burrow out as early as late April, but the cool spring this year has pushed the arrival back, and it will likely be mid to late may before we see the large numbers predicted.

Early signs of cicadas include finger-size holes in the ground near the base of trees. You might also spot a chimneylike tunnel poking out of the soil.

The Times, July 1893

The males will then sing a mating song, by flexing a drumlike organ called a tymbal. There will be so very many of them that the sound may be quite loud in many areas, as the cicada calls combine into a huge chorus.

“In large groups, the sound can reach as high as 100 decibels, which is equivalent to a motorcycle, low-flying airplane or lawn mower starting. The sound of a group of cicadas is often compared to the sound of electricity,” according to the Ohio Department of Agriculture.

Cicadas will lay their eggs mostly on the outer parts of thin tree branches, where they will make a small slit in the branch to create their egg nests.

Brood X will spend 4-6 weeks mating and laying eggs, and then they will die.
When the new Cicadas hatch from the eggs, they will climb back down the tree and burrow into the ground, where they will remain for the next 17 years. This years babies will emerge from the ground in 2038.

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