There’s a lot of noise about what is happening this month in the eastern half of the United States. Some refer to it as "Cicada-geddon," with the emergence of two large broods of periodical cicadas – possibly a trillion of them, emerging at one time. That might sound scary, especially since many people in the South refer to them as "locusts."
Cicadas (pronounced ’see-kay-duh’) are not locusts. But much like some refer to Cavanal Hill as "the tallest hill in the world" right here in Oklahoma (near Poteau) – it isn’t really the tallest hill in the world. The moniker just stuck when enough people referred to it as such. That colloquialism ("locust") is a bad rap for the cicada. In actuality, locusts are large grasshoppers that fly around in swarms and destroy crops – as featured in the eighth Biblical plague. If you’re not opposed to taking a close look at creepy crawly things, you’ll notice that locusts are very different from cicadas.
There are several different kinds of common annual cicadas in Oklahoma.
Some might be concerned about seeing a lot of cicadas this summer. It’s going to happen, but there is no need to be alarmed. Cicadas, as adults, do not eat or harm crops. They do not bite, and only live for a short period of time. The majority of their juvenile lives are spent underground, sipping sap from the roots of trees for several years. Once they are ready to become an adult, they tunnel up to the surface, climb onto a tree branch or anything they can hang onto, and shed their skin during the night. The fascinating process looks a lot like something you’d see in a Frankenstein movie.
Adult cicadas have no defense mechanisms other than a bit of camouflage. However, hiding is a rather moot point with a voice as loud as a car horn. Cicadas have to find a mate quickly with such a short [adult] life span. One might think that these creatures would become extinct without defenses, but with the upcoming multi-brood emergence, there is safety in numbers. Their main objective is to mate before they perish. The male cicadas make noise with specialized organs called tympana to produce a sound as loud as 108 decibels. This noise obviously helps to attract attention from potential mates in the area.
This year, in addition to annual broods that surface, a brood that typically emerges every 13 years, and another brood that emerges every 17 years will crawl from underground simultaneously and fly across the south and Midwest looking to mate.
According to a map from the US Forest Service, most (17-year) periodical cicadas in Oklahoma belong to brood IV. They were active in 1947, 1964, 1981, and 1998 and last emerged in 2015. We also have smaller emergences of broods II and VI and perhaps a few others. Brood XIX (a 13-year brood) is known to occur in McCurtain County (in the southeastern corner of the state). It was active in 1959, 1972, 1985, and 1998 and in 2011, so Brood XIX should emerge again this year, right in the part of Oklahoma that experienced totality during the solar eclipse.
This overlapping of large broods across the nation hasn’t happened since the year 1803, when Thomas Jefferson was president. So, this is quite a rare event, and one that you don’t need to wear protective glasses to see – although hearing protection might be in order.
