17-Year Cicadas: ‘Bottomless’ Supply In Maryland Is Real

MARYLAND — The 17-year cicada mating season underway across Maryland is basically death sex for the insects, which spend nearly two decades underground just waiting for this moment.

Researchers say the insects, which will die a couple or three weeks after answering nature's call to perpetuate their species, face a rather ghastly peril: certain types of the fungus Massospora that contain the same psychoactive chemicals found in hallucinogenic mushrooms and street amphetamines.

And as these psychoactive compounds do to humans, the fungus Massospora is causing some bizarre cicada behavior.

They're doing it — we don't really need to spell that out, do we? — so furiously that their genitals fall off. Cicadas are so, ahem, inspired that they continue doing it even after their genitals are gone and are copulating without regard to the gender of the other bug, according to study co-author Matthew Kasson, a plant pathologist at the University of West Virginia.

He said in a news release announcing the 2019 study that cicadas infected by the fungus "engage in hypersexual behaviors."

Maryland is among 15 states and the District of Columbia where billions and billions of cicadas from Brood X, known as the Great Eastern Brood, began pushing their way through the ground in May and June. Others are Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.

This unfortunate development certainly creates a new wrinkle in the states that have them

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Entrepreneurs are cashing in on the craze with cicada-themed merchandise, news station WBAL in Baltimore reported. In Maryland, where the cicadas are starting to come out of the ground, Route One Apparel owner Ali Von Paris is taking her cues from the bugs.

"Just like cicadas will be everywhere, we had to put them on everything, so T-shirts, tote bags, hats, even onesies for the little ones," she said.

And you have to know that somewhere, a T-shirt designer is already roughing out designs and testing slogans for bottomless cicada designs — because they don't even seem to care.

This unfortunate development certainly creates a new wrinkle for the insects set to overwhelm parts of Maryland. The cicadas are expected to emerge in large numbers this week and next as temperatures heat up.

"This run of moderately warm days with unusually chilly nights seems to have taken an unusual toll on cicadas," Dr. Michael Raupp, known for his Bug Guy blog and a professor emeritus of entomology at the University of Maryland, said May 17. "Many nymphs emerging from the earth near dusk with temperatures in the upper 60s, hit a developmental brick wall as temperatures rapidly dropped to the low 50s and 40s during the night."

Based on the last emergence, in 2004, state officials expect the cicadas to be found in these areas: Allegany, Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Cecil, Frederick, eastern Garrett, Harford, Howard, Montgomery, Prince George's and Washington counties and Baltimore City.

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Cicadas go through a lot before their genitals fall off. The fungus overtakes their little bodies and eats through their limbs. Their abdomens fall off as the fungus grows like a sponge inside them. This only increases the likelihood fungal spores will be spread through the group.

Yet they persist.

Even with missing body parts, important ones given the job of cicadas during their brief time in the sunlight, "they would be whistling as they walk down the street," Kasson told the American Society of Microbiology, according to an article in Smithsonian.

Kasson and his team started studying the cicadas after the 2016 emergence, according to a University of West Virginia news release. One of Kasson's students, Angie Macias, even coined a name for the cicadas that seems right out of a heavy metal band's repertoire: "flying salt shakers of death."

Kasson thinks the research could open a new frontier in the development of pharmaceutical drugs.

And before anyone asks — and we know that at least some of the people are thinking it — can you get high by eating a cicada infected by the fungus, which has the same psilocybin found in "magic mushrooms"?

"Maybe," Kasson said in the UWV news release, "if you're motivated enough.

"Here is the thing," he continued, "the psychoactive compounds were just two of less than 1,000 compounds found in these cicadas. Yes, they are notable, but there are other compounds that might be harmful to humans. I wouldn't take that risk."

Billions of cicadas are expected this year, according to the Maryland Department of Agriculture.

While cicadas emerged in some parts of the region in the last week, it wasn't the full-blown avalanche of critters that is to come. Cool overnight temperatures in the 40s and low 50s made it hard for cicada nymphs to shed their exoskeleton skins, and made them vulnerable to be a quick meal for birds and squirrels, as well as family pets, the Washington Post reported.

The cicadas don't sting or bite pets, or people, (in fact, they don't have the mouthparts for biting), so that won't be a problem.

Gov. Larry Hogan issued a proclamation declaring May and June 2021 as Maryland Magicicada Months to generate public awareness about the insects.

Have you seen any cicadas? Tell us in the comments and share your pics on Patch!

Patch Editor Elizabeth Janney contributed to this story.