Cicadas are in Williamsburg…but don’t worry…
Cicadas are in Williamsburg…but don’t worry…they are just teens.
They’re here! This cicada was on my porch this morning…(Tuesday, May 7, 2024)
Let’s have a few fun facts. (It’s helping me not to freak out). They are nothing more than teens. 
These cicadas have been living underground for 13 or 17 years (depending on which brood). They have been under our feet living their lives eating sap from tree roots.
Why are so many coming this year? Well, this year, the ones that come up when they are 13 years old and the ones that come up when they are 17 years old are overlaping for the first time in 221 years. The last time was 1803.
Do you know what happened in 1803? The US doubled in size when we bought the Louisiana purchase from France. Jefferson was president, and he got the ball rolling for the Lewis and Clark expedition. So it has been a minute.
Back to cicadas….
They don’t bite, they are not great flyers and they are not poisonous if your pets eat them…which brings up a good point…they only live 6 weeks and are part of the food chain so if you poison them you may be poisoning other animals when they eat them, including your pets, so experts recommend leaving them alone.
How many are coming? A billion, maybe a trillion. But here in Virginia we are only getting the 13 year old brood. Parts of Illinois will get both!
What are the names of the two broods of teens coming out of the ground? Cicada Broods XIII and XIX
Can you tell the broods apart?
You won’t be able to tell them apart by looking at them. You would need an oscillator to measure the pitch of the male’s mating song. That noise is the sound of love, guys. 
They don’t eat flowers or gardens. They do make small slits in branches to lay their eggs so we read that they can harm fruit trees or weak trees, and you might cover young trees – just talk to your gardening store. Contrary to what I thought, they apparently don’t do much to farmers’ crops.
So what is the take away? We have approx 6 weeks of a ton of bugs coming out of the ground. They aren’t dangerous but it’s gonna be gross (I’m still not a fan)…unless you study these broods. Then this is either the first or last chance you’ll get to study your life’s work in your entire career. 
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