Video: 17 year cicadas outbreak

Amazingly well filmed & set to Enya's music, the life cycle of the 17-year cicada.

Illinois Boy Finds Rare, Blue-Eyed Cicada

DOWNERS GROVE, Ill. -- Those pesky little bugs, cicadas, have been making their return in recent weeks in parts of the Midwest.

They pop out of the ground like clockwork every 17 years.

Looking something like angry versions of crickets, cicadas are known for their bright red eyes.

Nicholas Wagner, 6, of the Chicago suburb of Downers Grove learned in kindergarten that about one in every million of the bugs has blue eyes. When the cicadas finally showed up, Nicholas was ready. And last Friday he spotted that one-in-a-million.

His mother, Maria, said Nicholas shouted, "Mommy, I found a blue-eyed cicada!"

***

Sorry, I personally didn't find any blue-eyed cicadas, but have more than enough of the red-eyed variety.

Here's my collection:

Cicadas are a tasty, and healthy, treat for animals at Illinois' Brookfield Zoo

At the Brookfield Zoo, cicadas are a lot more than just really noisy insects: They're delicious treats.

These days, a host of animals from bearded dragon lizards to African wild dogs to white-crested laughing thrush birds are enjoying cicadas.

Although the cicadas emerging this month after spending 17 years underground may seem like candy to the animals -- crunchy on the outside and soft in the center -- they're actually health food.

"They're extremely nutritious and won't impact their (animals') diets because they don't have a lot of fat in them," Tim Sullivan, the zoo's behavioral husbandry manager, said Friday.

17-year Cicadas emerge in the Midwest

These cicadas spend 17 years underground, living off sap from tree roots. Now is the time when they appear in mass, shed their brown skeletons and mate. Before they die, females will lay the eggs of the batch scheduled to arrive in 2024.

This periodical cicadas swarm technically is called The Great Northern Illinois Brood XIII, they have red eyes instead of green like the annual ones. They can emerge in vast numbers — as many as 1.5 million per acre — in a path about 200 miles long that stretches from northwestern Indiana to Wisconsin.

They don’t bite or sting and their single purpose is to mate, lay about 30,000 eggs and die. The male cicadas’ buzz is so loud they can be heard a quarter-mile away. The racket is a love song. Only the males sing. The females are lured to the sound and fly nearer. A female responds to a male with a flick of her wings. The two gradually draw close to one another until they meet for mating. Male cicadas die soon after mating. Females lay 400 to 600 eggs in as many as 40 to 50 different nests before they die. The billions of cicada nymphs hatch in their nests high in the trees, drop to the ground, and burrow into the earth. There they find a succulent tree root, which they tap into with a special strawlike mouth part. They feed on the tree sap and pass through their various growth stages until, 17 years later, it is time to emerge and renew their life cycle.

National Geographic News explains that periodical cicadas are found only in the United States east of the Great Plains. Seventeen-year cicadas are found mainly in the northern, eastern, and western part of their range.

May 22 sounds like the day for cicadas in Chicago area

Those planning weddings or family reunions this spring may want to watch out for May 22.

That's the date, a prominent cicada researcher is estimating, that the little red-eyed bugs will emerge in the Chicago area. Specifically, the evening of May 21 and early morning hours of May 22.

Some may emerge a few days earlier and some stragglers may crawl from the ground a bit later depending on sunshine and shade, but the May day is "the big day,'' said Gene Kritsky, an entomologist and author of several bug books, including Periodical Cicadas: The Plague and the Puzzle.


Cicadas spend about 17 years underground, feeding on tree roots. A few weeks before emerging, the nymphs construct exit tunnels to the surface. Some build chimney-like turrets over the holes and these small piles have already been observed in some areas around Chicago.

Get ready for cicada season

17-Year Cicada (1 1/2 x 3 1/2 x 1/2-inch Tack Pin)
Annual Cicada (1 1/2 x 3 1/2 x 1/2-inch Tack Pin)

Inspired by the Cicada.
Walnut body, brass or copper wire mesh wings, red or green eyes.
Red-eyed cicada emerges in 17-year cycles; green-eyed cicada emerges annually.