Cicada Invasion Coming So 'Magicicada Months' Declared By Hogan

MARYLAND — The approaching emergence of billions of 17-year cicadas in Maryland and nearby states will provide fodder for scientists to study, allow residents to help researchers spot the swarms, and may liven up dining since there are even recipes featuring the insects.

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

Brood X periodical cicadas are only found in the eastern United States and emerge once every 17 years. In Maryland, they will begin to emerge in early May and will die off by the end of June.

“I encourage all Marylanders to take advantage of this opportunity to learn about these remarkable, harmless creatures,” Hogan said in a news release. “For a few short weeks this spring, many across the state will have a front-row seat to witness a natural phenomenon that happens nowhere else on the planet.”

Researchers say billions of Brood X 17-year cicadas will also emerge in New Jersey, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia. But an expert said Maryland will be in the thick of it all.

Based on the 2004 Brood X emergence in Maryland, Hogan's office said cicadas will likely appear in these counties: Allegany, Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Cecil, Frederick, eastern Garrett, Harford, Howard, Montgomery, Prince George’s, and Washington. If you live in one of these areas and have older trees in your neighborhood, chances are their populations will be higher.

Since the Brood X periodical cicadas last emerged in spring 2004, cicada nymphs have been living underground, a couple of feet below the surface, feeding on sap from tree roots for the past 17 years. Now, Brood X adults are preparing to emerge when soil temperatures reach about 64 degrees, Hogan's office said.

Once above ground, the insects live for just a few weeks. During this short lifespan, they shed their nymphal exoskeletons, grow wings, fly, sing, mate, lay eggs in trees, and then die. In late July to early August, their eggs hatch. The tiny white nymphs will fall from trees and immediately begin to burrow underground, where they will live until 2038.

Cicadas do not chew, bite, or sting, so they are not a threat to humans, pets, animals, or most plants. If your pet or animal consumes a few cicadas, they should be fine, though over-indulging may upset their stomach.

For those living in areas with Brood X populations, here is what to expect during their life cycle:

• They will appear over a few weeks. Brood X cicadas synchronously emerge in large numbers as part of a predator satiation strategy. By coordinating their emergence, the sheer number of cicadas will allow for many to be eaten by predators while some of the population survives to procreate. Some birds, reptiles, amphibians, mammals, and other insects all prey on cicadas.
• They will be loud. Once they are fully grown, male cicadas “sing” their mating call to attract females, making a loud chorus that can reach a volume as high as 105 decibels. This is comparable to a lawn mower, leaf blower, or chainsaw. These sounds will usually last from late May to late June and will be loudest in the afternoon.
• They are lousy flyers. Brood X cicadas are lousy flyers so they will likely run into windows, cars, buildings, and people. If one lands on you, simply brush it off.
• There will be many cicada carcasses. Once the Brood X cicadas die in later June, there will be billions of carcasses decomposing on the ground and they may give off an unpleasant odor.

To find out if your area is expected to see Brood X cicadas check the map. Do not use pesticides or insecticides to try to kill them— doing so will not be helpful in controlling populations and only poses a threat of harming other helpful, beneficial insects.

The best way to dispose of them is by adding their carcasses to a compost pile.

For more information and additional resources, visit the Maryland Department of Agriculture’s cicada webpage.

Dr. Michael Raupp, known for his Bug Guy blog and a professor emeritus of entomology at the University of Maryland, said Maryland is at the epicenter of the cicada emergence.

"There will be spectacular numbers of cicadas emerging very heavily, starting perhaps in early May," Raupp told WJLA. "But the big 'cicada-palooza' is going to happen the last two weeks of May and into early June. So in some areas, there will be 1.5 million cicadas per acre emerging from the ground."

Cities likely to see and hear the invasion of bugs include Annapolis, Baltimore, Bel Air, Bethesda, Bowie, Brooklyn Park, Catonsville, Chevy Chase, College Park, Columbia, Cockeysville, Crofton, Eldersburg, Elkridge, Ellicott City, Fallston, Gaithersburg, Gambrills, Germantown, Glen Burnie, Greenbelt, Hanover, Havre De Grace, Hyattsville, Landover Hills, Laurel, Lutherville, Odenton, Owings Mills, Pikesville, Potomac, Randallstown, Reisterstown, Riverdale, Rockville, Severna Park, Silver Spring, Takoma Park, Timonium, Towson, and Wheaton.

Anyone with a smartphone can download the free Cicada Safari app to help with the data collection on the emergence Brood X — or Great Eastern Brood, as this population also is known.

It's just a matter of snapping a photo or short video and uploading it. The app automatically captures the time, date and geographical coordinates. Once the images are verified, the information is mapped.

The Cicada Safari app was developed by Gene Kritsky, the dean of Behavioral and Natural Sciences at Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati and the author of "Periodical Cicadas: The Brood X Edition." The app is available for both iOS and Android operating systems.

Kritsky told Entomology Today he hopes to get 50,000 observations from the citizen cicada scientists to help scientists understand more about Brood X, the largest cohort of cicadas that spend 17 years underground before emerging almost simultaneously to molt and mate.

Here are more 17-year periodical cicada stories you might enjoy:

• You Can Eat 17-Year Cicadas As They Emerge In Maryland
• Billions Of 17-Year Cicadas Will Emerge; MD Epicenter In 2021
• Cicadas Swarm And Copperheads: Yes, It's A Thing In Maryland
• 17-Year Cicadas A Call For MD Citizen Scientists To Help In Count

The app was used last year to document Brood IX of the 17-year cicadas — an effort that was set back by the coronavirus pandemic — and also the emergence of four other off-year broods. Documenting the off-cycle emergences would have been more difficult without the app, according to Kritsky.

Scientists have long relied on local reports from everyday folks to help map periodical cicadas.
As early as the 1840s, when periodical cicadas were more of a mystery than they are today, researcher Gideon B. Smith "wrote newspaper articles asking readers to send him details of where they saw cicadas," Kritsky told Entomology Today. "By the time of his death in 1867, he had documented all known broods of cicadas."

"I have been mining historical emergence records for 45 years, and in the process we have discovered new populations of broods that had been missed for over a century," Kritsky told Entomology Today. "It's amazing that an insect that has been studied for so long and by so many still has secrets to reveal."