Community Corner

Cicadas Return: 17-year Cicadas to Overtake East Coast by the Millions

In May, cicadas in Maryland and along the Eastern seaboard will wake from their 17-year sleep.

Marylanders can expect to see Magicicada Brood II cicadas starting in May and June, according to cicada researchers.  

There have been cicadas in Maryland over the past 17 years, most recently Brood X in 2004.

According to magicicada.org, a website run by University of Connecticut entomologist John Cooley, these periodical cicadas are unique in their life cycles (13 or 17 years), their mass emergence and their well-known chorus. 

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This particular group of cicadas, named Brood II, will appear from Connecticut to Virginia, according to the website. This brood is not as large, in geographic appearance, as Brood X which last appeared in Howard County in 2004, according to the Magicicicada database

Here are some more interesting facts about Magicicadas:

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  • Many people know periodical cicadas by the name "17-year locusts" or "13-year locusts", but they are not true locusts, which are a type of grasshopper.
  • Magicicada adults have black bodies and striking red eyes and orange wing veins, with a black "W" near the tips of the forewings.
  • Cicadas do not sting or bite.
  • Experts believe that cicada "nymphs" emerge from the ground (where they sleep for 17 years) when the soil temperature inside their exit tunnel exceeds 64 degrees. 

You won't be able to miss them, periodical cicadas can reach population densities as high as 1.5 million per acre. Densities of tens to hundreds of thousands per acre are more common according to magicicada.org

Experts say that the cicadas will hang around for about four to six weeks after they start emerging from the ground and that they make most of their noise during the daytime hours.

Want to get a good dose of the singing bugs? Or looking to steer clear? Cicadas are drawn to trees, where they eat and mate, so watch out in wooded areas of Columbia's pathway and in parks like Patapsco Valley State Park.

For more cicada information, visit the Cicada Central website. 


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