Date: Mon, 09 May 2011 07:43:12 -0400
From: Jane Dunlap
Subject: Those aren’t locusts, they’re cicadas
Specifically, Magicicada, periodical cicadas that emerge in 13-year cycles; the ones in NC this year are from Brood XIX. The males sing, calling for mates, only during the day. In two months they will be gone. The annual cicadas we usually hear emerge in July and sing much later in the day.
Locusts look like giant grasshoppers and swarms of them can destroy massive amounts of vegetation. Cicadas are noisy but essentially non-destructive except possibly to young trees, as they number in the hundreds of thousands per acre.
So celebrate cicadas! If these were locusts, we wouldn’t be so joyful. If you want to help track and map this year’s emergence of Brood XIX, check out
— Jane