Cicadas are coming
While annual cicadas are commonly heard singing in Lake County every year, there is a population of periodical cicadas that only emerges here every 17 years. This massive emergence is expected in May and June of this year (the last periodical emergence occurred in 2007). Millions of cicadas will tunnel out of the soil, crawl up trees, sing, mate, lay eggs, hatch into nymphs, and complete their life cycle returning to the soil under trees where they live on tree sap until their next emergence in 17 years.
The periodical cicada population in northern Illinois is known as Brood XIII. 2024 will be a very special year for periodical cicada emergence in Illinois, as it is the only state predicted to experience a double emergence – two periodical cicada broods emerging in the same year. In addition to the Brood XIII 17-year emergence in northern Illinois, Brood XIX 13-year periodical cicadas will emerge in central and southern Illinois this year. This occurs every 221 years--the last time this occurred was in 1803 when Thomas Jefferson was president.
The cicada emergence provides a buffet of nutritious snacks for birds and other wildlife. Birds as small as blue-gray gnatcatchers and as large as trumpeter swans were documented eating cicadas during the last Brood X emergence in the eastern US in 2021. The abundance of cicadas influences what birds eat during emergence years as opposed to non-emergence years and birds have been documented to eat fewer caterpillars during the emergence seasons, which may result in more caterpillars surviving to feed on tree leaves.
Learn more about the wonders of the emergence of periodical cicadas at the Lake County Audubon Society program meeting on April 1 featuring Mark Hurly from the Lake County Forest Preserves, and explore the articles linked below:
LAKE COUNTY FOREST PRESERVES
17 years, 64 degrees, 100 decibels: The Emergence of Periodical Cicadas
https://www.lcfpd.org/horizons/
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN
A Double Emergence of Periodical Cicadas Isn’t Cicada-geddon – It’s a Marvel
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-double-brood-of-periodical-cicadas-will-emerge-in-2024/
MORTON ARBORETUM
Cicadas Due to Emerge All Over Illinois in Spring 2024
SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE
Huge Cicada Broods Have Ripple Effects on Birds, Caterpillars and Trees