TULSA, Okla. — Cicadas make a loud return every few years.
This spring will see a certain brood of cicadas emerge throughout the Southeast, including some parts of Oklahoma, after 13 years.
Cicadas can impact trees and plants to some degree — and especially our ear drums.
There was love in the air on Valentine's Day. Come springtime, however, people will hear the love in the air.
No, literally. Cicadas emit those screeching sounds as mating calls.
“When these cicadas come out," Alex Harman explained that "they fly up into the treetops and they'll sing basically all afternoon to try and attract a mate. And to make sure that they're mating with the right species, different species have different calls.”
Harman is a PhD student and insect diagnostician at Oklahoma State University's Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology.
He expects the cicadas to emerge at the end of May, then dying off sometime after mid-June. He said that's based on previous reports in Oklahoma.
The type of cicadas we'll deal with in parts of Oklahoma are those from Brood XIX (Roman numeral for 19). Known as the Great Southern Brood, Brood XIX is on a 13-year cycle, whereas some other periodical cicadas emerge every 17 years. Those are different from annual cicadas, who emerge about every five years in overlapping cycles.
In fact, Brood XIX and Brood XIII (13) will emerge simultaneously for the first time in over two centuries. Luckily, for our own sake, that will only happen in areas of the Midwest.
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He told us whenever there’s a mass emergence of cicadas, they can damage small trees and young plants because of females cutting slits into new stems to lay eggs. Large trees can deal with it, however.
Harman said covering the young trees with a sort of cloth can help protect them from cicadas.
As for crops in general, he said cicadas won’t harm corn, soybeans, or any of that.
Despite their ear-piercing mating calls, Harmen pointed out that "the cicadas have a pretty beneficial impact on the environment because when they die, their bodies decompose, and that really fuels tree growth the following year. Also, all the cicadas are great food for turkeys and other birds that like to eat insects.”
While that’s all well and good, what kind of impact will Brood XIX have on the average person?
“You’ll probably see them, and once they all die, their bodies will probably smell for a couple of days before they get decomposed and eaten by other creatures," said Harmen. "But they don't really have that big of an impact on the average person.”
"I mean, it'll be loud," he admitted. "You might need to, like, yell to hear someone outside if you're out in Adair County.”
Looking at a map from the U.S. Forest Service locating the various broods and the years they will emerge, Brood XIX will only affect Adair County in Oklahoma.
So, if the cicadas don’t bug you, maybe a road trip to Stillwell is in order.
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