The impressive cicada appearance of 2024 in Illinois may be reducing, but the cicada season isn’t done. It began with two key periodical cicada groups, Broods XIII and XIX, appearing simultaneously, an event not seen in over 220 years. Yet a new swarm is on the way, the yearly “dog day” cicadas, ensuring that the buzzing won’t stop.

Differences between Periodical and Annual Cicadas

Periodical Cicadas,

• Appearance Interval: Every 13 or 17 years
• Features, Smaller: less bulky, more tubular shaped
• Population count: Billions from Broods XIII and XIX expected
• Noise Level: less loud individually, but louder as a group due to large numbers

Annual Cicadas,

• Cycle: Every summer
• Characteristics: Larger, green, more robust
• Sound: Typically, Loud than periodical ones because of their sturdiness

Allen Lawrance from the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Chicago told us that they see cicadas every 17 years. However, they also get every single year. Those are their annual cicada that are larger and green. ”

When Will ‘Dog Day’ Cicadas Emerge?

The annual cicada of Illinois usually appears during July to September. An article from the University of Illinois Extension states that these cicadas usually need 2 – 5 years to grow up. In contrast to periodical cicada, their lifecycles overlap and are not synchronized.

• Emergence Reason, ‘Dog Day’ cicada surface during the hot periods of summer.
• Cycle duration, Periodical cicadas need 13 or 17 years from egg to adult. They emerge all at once in the spring after soil temperature has reached 64 degrees.

Although periodical cicadas have mostly disappeared by late June, the arrival of annual ones ensures that Illinois can still enjoy the music of cicada season. Lawrance advised that they are simply unavoidable. They will be visible flying around and settling on trees, and they will be heard everywhere.

Future Generation, Cicada eggs

Even as adult periodical cicadas start dying out, their offspring carry on through their eggs. Hatching usually occurs between six to ten weeks post laying. Kritsky is a respected expert on cicadas who noted that given favorable conditions, this hatching could be observed in Chicago.

• Hatching time: Under suitable sun angle conditions people may witness nymphs tumbling onto earth whilst gleaming in descent 
• Egg count: The trees situated in heavy emergence zones might host nearly 40,000 unhatched eggs.

Cicadas Exit Illinois?

By June’s closure periodical cicada might have mostly vanished. Despite being among life’s longest-lived insects most of their lifespan going up to 13 or 17 years is spent underground rather than above ground. Following emergence, reproduction, vocalization these adults continue living for generally about one month before dying.

Cicada Purpose & Benefits

• Aeration of topsoil: Cicada nymphs improve soil quality by allowing air and water to penetrate more freely.
• Tree trimming: Adult cicadas emerging enact a natural form of pruning on mature trees.
•  Nutritional Supply: With their biomass, cicadas provide food for wildlife and enhance soil fertility with the nitrogen they add through decomposition.

Climate Change and its Impact on Cicadas

As per Chris Simon who is a professor at the University of Connecticut, climate change could have a dramatic impact on cicada population. Higher temperatures in winter season combined with early springs could possibly make cicadas appear ahead of time. This development may eventually convert 17-years cicada broods into 13-year populations over time due to earlier hatching conditions.

• Effect, rather than reducing in numbers, cicadas might just alter their emergence schedule.
• Migration, Climate change might slowly compel cicadas to move towards northern regions, but the movement will likely be slow because of low mobility over long stretches.

Contributing towards Cicada Research

Citizen Science, Download Cicada Safari app for iOS or Android gadgets. Take pictures of cicadas with geolocation feature enabled. Assist researchers like Simon and Kritsky in confirming and logging data.

Managing Disturbance from Cicadas,

Cicadas do create quite a bit of noise, but there are ways to find relative peace.

• Noise reduction headphones
• White noise creating devices
• Earplugs
• DIY Soundproofing: Weather-stripping foam tape can help reduce noise.

Cicada Chimneys,

• Description, these refer to mud towers constructed by emerging cicadas which cover their emergence points.
• Impact, such constructs are temporary and harmless disintegrating naturally after a while.

Protecting Young Trees

Cicadas can pose a threat to new or smaller sized trees by depositing eggs onto them causing damage to branches. Here are some ways of protecting these trees,

• Wrapping Trunks, Use materials such as cheesecloth, aluminum foil tape, regular barrier tape or sticky tapes.
• Landscaping Nets, Cover the smaller trees to guard against damages from cicada.

Can People Ingest Cicadas?

Sure! Cicadas are known to be edible for humans. Interestingly they belong to the same family as shrimp and lobster. So obviously people with allergies to seafood need to stay away from them. Anyone feeling adventurous can find plenty of simple recipes online for trying out cicadas.

For Pets, if your dog consumes a couple of cicadas, it should not be a problem unless it accidentally chokes on them.

Conclusion

The cicada season in Illinois can be described as an interesting natural event, although quite noisy indeed. With yearly cycle ‘dog day’ cicada about to surface end of summer, ongoing chirping and buzzing is still expected as they appear more frequently.

It is amazing how these insects have distinctive lifecycle patterns and fill unique environmental roles which indicates nature’s complicatedness and invincibility. One might feel awe inspired by them or find their noise irritating but either way, cicadas are here for some more time at least.