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If you haven’t yet heard them or seen them, there is no doubt – the cicadas are here.
This particular brood of cicada comes around every 17 years, and this year they can be found in Virginia counties from Prince William to Pittsylvania on the North Carolina border. Some other broods can pop up every 13 years.
These large, beady-eyed bugs don’t sting, but their mass emergence from the ground can overwhelm their predators – mostly birds, the Virginia Cooperative Extension states. The bugs start appearing in May with their numbers peaking in June. By July they’re mostly gone, the Cooperative Extension states.
Creepy, the bugs live below ground for years, and when it’s time to appear, they work together and use mud to build a “cicada hut” in which to emerge from. Once out, the bugs shed their skins – often seen left behind on tree trunks or limbs – and live for about four weeks.
The bugs aren’t known to cause much damage as they feed, and the male cicadas actually sing by “vibrating membranes on the sides of the first abdominal segment,” according to the Cooperative Extension. Females don’t sing, and after mating they lay their eggs – up to 400 per bug – inside of tree branches.
When the new bugs, called nymphs, hatch 10 weeks later, they fall to the ground where they burrow to feed.
Tell us where you’ve seen cicadas in our area, and share your photos on our Facebook page!
