Cicadas are expected to reappear in the Northeast this spring, but will they be in CT?

Yahoo

22-04-2025

They look like space aliens, they make a loud buzzing sound and the last time you might have seen one Barack Obama was President of the United States.
Cicadas, one of the more unusual insect species in North America, are expected to emerge this spring after nearly 17 years underground, according to researchers. Brood XIV, the latest group of buzzing perennial cicadas, is the latest to appear in New England in over a decade. The last time this brood appeared was in 2008.
The sizable insects have stocky bodies and short antennae. Cicadas have large red eyes and transparent wings that feature noticeable veins, according to University of Connecticut. The species is notable for having both annual cicadas, which emerge and mate every year, and periodical cicadas which emerge after 13 or 17 years.
The insects come out of the ground when soil temperatures reach 64 degrees, which typically happens during the second half of May. While annual cicadas emerge worldwide each year, periodical cicadas can only be found in the eastern part of the United States, according to the Connecticut Agriculture Experiment Station.
'There's multiple broods of cicadas we track, but Connecticut is not expected to see cicadas emerge this year,' said Katherine Dugas, entomologist at the insect information office at AES.
Cicadas are likely to make an appearance in Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia, and in nine southern counties in Indiana, according to Cicada Safari, a website that gathers data on the insects. But while states in the Northeast will see cicadas, Connecticut is not mentioned on the list.
'It's funny that Massachusetts and Rhode Island will see them, but not here in Connecticut,' Dugas said. 'That could just be that populations are not present here historically or more likely they have gone extinct because they were extirpated. Because cicadas go underground for over a decade, that requires their host tree to be around for that long too. So any kind of development of older forests that may have these populations, if those trees are removed, that also removes the cicada population.'
Connecticut's periodical cicada brood is Brood II, which won't emerge until 2030, according to Dugas. Brood II emerges every 17 years and last emerged in 2013. She said that the best place to see cicadas in 2030 will be in the middle of the state. Some tracts of land around power lines in Hamden are known to be where the brood is underground, she said.
The insects emerge from the ground to mate and the females lay eggs in tree branches, she said. Around 6 to 10 weeks later, the eggs hatch and the babies drop to the ground. The juveniles then go beneath the ground and feed on grass roots and start the process all over again. The adults only live a couple weeks once they emerge, according to Dugas.
The cicadas are able to correctly time their emergence based on linking with the roots of a mature tree and monitoring its growth cycles. This kind of relationship with their host tree leads to remarkable accuracy for emerging every 13 or 17 years, Dugas said.
While the insects often emerge in swarms and can look menacing, they are harmless as they can't bite or sting, according to Dugas. Instead, their mouth parts are made for primarily sucking on plant sap.
Cicadas are known to produce a loud, buzzing sound that they makes from a unique structure on their abdomen called a tymbal. Each brood typically contains multiple species, and different periodical cicada species have different calling songs they use in the mating process. Because individual cicadas can synchronize their sounds, they are known to produce choruses of 90 or more decibels, when hundreds are synchronized all together.
'Often times people don't see cicadas, they actually hear them first,' Dugas said. 'You'll commonly hear people say they can hear them in their yards when they emerge. They can be very loud and sometimes people will report them as a nuisance because of the noise. But they are ultimately harmless and will not really permanently damage a tree either, usually just some minor twig damage occurs. '
Stephen Underwood can be reached at [e-mail].