Sex-crazed critters hold special meaning

The Cicadas are Coming!

Includes NSFW content

By Will Collette

In the winter of 1969, Cathy and I met when we both volunteered to be on the publicity committee for Ecology Action for Rhode Island. 

In the months before the first Earth Day, the idea of an activist style environmental movement was a pretty new concept and lots of us who had made our chops in the anti-war movement saw the environment as the next big thing.

For some crazy reason, the Ecology Action board, which was split between conservationists and New Age environmentalists, gave us the assignment of coming up with a publicity campaign against the use of pesticides that were likely to be deployed to kill the impending emergence of the 17-year cicada (Magicicada septendecium).

These are the weird bugs that emerge in the hundreds of millions on a regular cycle, in this case 17 years, from ground hibernation. They spend a few short weeks covering the ground and trees, making an infernal racket and having sex. 

Cicada porn

The other critters – birds, squirrels, every creature that likes to eat bugs, even some humans – use cicadas as one colossal pig-out, gorging themselves on these hapless cicadas whose only purpose in life is to have one short moment of bliss.

If you’d like to see what you’re missing, click here for links to cicada recipes.

There are a variety of different cicada broods, each on a different cycle that appear in various parts of the country. Plus there are annual cicadas. On rare occasions, two broods will emerge during the same season, but the math on that is such that it usually happens only every 200 years or so. The next time this will happen is in the 22^nd Century.

The cicadas roam around a little bit and nibble a little on the ends of branches, usually without causing much damage (do not confuse these critters with gypsy moths). Mostly the males emit their mating calls, often hitting 120 decibels (way, way louder than a wind turbine, way louder than Rhythm and Roots) to attract a mate.

If they manage to mate before getting eaten, the females lay eggs on tree branches and then die. The eggs hatch and the nymphs drop to the ground and then burrow as deep as two feet below ground, there to wait out the next 17 year cycle.

Rhode Island is on the edge of the cicada zone which is concentrated in a patchwork from North Carolina through most of Connecticut. I know that in 1969, there was some concern about a cicada infestation. Why else would Cathy and I have been given the assignment, right?

Newly hatched cicada nymph going to ground for another 17 years

At that time, I really didn’t care. I was much more interested in Cathy than the cicadas. But we did our job which was to produce some news releases that said that we should not bomb these little critters with chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticides.

Actually, I found myself more interested in the pesticides than the cicadas. One good thing that came out of our work was a push for some of the country’s first state legislation restricting the use of chlorinated hydrocarbons.

But since then, I’ve always had a soft spot for cicadas. When Cathy and I lived in Maryland for 25 years, we were right in the heartland for the eastern cicada and I remember the DC area going nuts when they emerged in amazing numbers in 2004.

Sure they were loud, but they were hardly what same are calling "Swarmaggedon." I remember they were not evenly distributed. You could hear them, but only a few neighborhoods had the kind of concentrations that made the evening TV news. I lived in Kensington, MD and it wasn't so bad. My colleague Linda Felaco lived a couple of towns over and she says it was close to unbearable.

Most writers describe cicadas as ugly or creepy looking – like an inch and a half long black fly or beetle with red-orange eyes and orange-veined wings. I think they’re interesting looking, a view that may be colored by a keepsake Cathy gave me some years after we met – a plastic cicada (left) with a push button that made it wail and made its red eyes flash. I could also use it as a very classy tie clip.

Cicada are not particularly harmful because they’re looking for love, not food. If they emerge in very large numbers in our area, they could be annoying especially if they drop on your head or are all underfoot, but URI doesn’t see them as a problem in our area (click here).

They do like wooded areas and I’ve seen some swarm maps that show them extending out of Connecticut and along the Rhode Island coast. The latest ones I've seen shown them coming up in some numbers around New Haven.

URI projects their likely emergence in the last two weeks of May and first week of June, but ambient temperatures, if they continue to be cool, could push that back. It's also possible we won't get any at all. 

But who wants to take the chance? There's still enough time for the folks in the Arnolda neighborhood  to get Town Councilors Dan Slattery and Tom Gentz enough time to get a town anti-cicada noise ordinance passed.

For more cartoons by Taylor Jones, click here