My husband and I recently purchased acreage near the NC/SC border. Our goal was to escape noise and traffic. Well, we escaped traffic but only exchanged one type of noise for another. This is the year that cicadas emerged from a 17-year hibernation. That is a bit of a misstatement, since some emerge every year, and it’s not so much a hibernation as it is an underground road-trip. It just so happens that 2020 is the BONUS year for a huge exodus from their underground homes in our part of the Carolinas’ piedmont. If you see plentiful small holes in your grass, blame it on cicadas instead of voles.

There are three species of the 17-year cicadas, and they each have their own distinctive raspy calls. There is also a species with a 13-year emergence cycle. The 13-year variety is found more commonly in the southeastern US, while the 17-year model is more plentiful in northern climates. An annual species is found countrywide. It is normal to find shed cicada exoskeltons clinging to limbs. The cicadas in the Mary Snoddy garden favor the trunks of crape myrtles as a deposit spot for spent shells.

Males and females make sounds that vary from buzzers to sirens to radio static. These loud calls are intended to attract or accept mates. It’s a bit like downtown New Orleans during Mardi Gras. Once mated, the females cut a small slit in tree limbs where they deposit eggs. In six to seven weeks, the eggs hatch and baby cicadas fall to the ground where they burrow in and start dining on tree roots. They work their way deeper and deeper into the soil each year. While this slit-in-the-tree egg depository may cause a bit of a dieback in a limb, neither the bark cut nor the root feeding causes any lasting harm to host trees.

Virginia Tech University published an article in May (Virginia Tech News, https://vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2020/05/CALS-periodical_cicada_2020.html) indicating there may be as many as 1.5 million cicadas PER ACRE in this year’s emergence. The annual species cicadas emerge in fewer numbers, from hundreds to thousands per acre. That’s a lot of buzzing/sirens/static. I don’t own a decibel meter, but I’m certain the combined sound equals the volume of my husband’s Harley-Davidson.

Cicadas are distant relatives of aphids. They are quite large (see the photo for a size in comparison to a quarter) but are completely harmless to humans, although the red eyes of some can be rather creepy. They do not enter homes. Squirrels and birds eat large quantities of them. Cats and dogs may eat a few, too. No need to be concerned – they are not toxic.