To Catch The Buzz, Go South––

Generation X Cicada Emergence Might Miss Connecticut

By Dottie Evans

An eclipse of the sun, a meteor shower, northern lights, or the early May migration of millions of warblers –– these are natural phenomena that we do not want to miss and will occasionally go out of our way to see.

Other spectacular events like hurricanes, tidal waves, earthquakes, or a plague of locusts –– well, we would just as soon they happened somewhere else.

So, how do we feel about cicadas?

These large winged insects that perch in trees or fence posts in July and August, singing loudly and incessantly, are familiar to most of us by sound if not by sight. Hearing their rasping buzz during a hot, dog day afternoon is a signal that summer is ending.

“Those cicadas of late summer are of the usual, annual variety that come out of the ground every year,” said entomologist Chris Mayer on Friday, May 14.

Mr Mayer works at the Connecticut Agricultural Experimental Station in New Haven.

“We have four such species. They come out in July and August and are gone by the end of September. They live just a short time, breed, lay eggs, and die,” he added.

But what about those other cicadas everyone is talking about –– the 17-year variety in Generation X that are hatching right now by the trillions just south of here? Will we hear the buzz in Connecticut?

Mr Mayer said that regrettably [from his point of view], this phenomenon would not be taking place as far north as Connecticut.

“We call this a periodic rather than an annual emergence,” he said.

The two largest periodic emergences of the 17-year cicada are known as generations 2 and 10. Generation 10 (as in X) takes place in late May and early June in the Southeast and the Midwest. It happened in 1970 and in 1987, and it will happen again in 2021.

The other 17-year cicada brood, Generation 2, is not on the same cycle. That emergence takes place further north. It happened here in 1996 and it will again in 2013, Mr Mayer said.

He explained there are several different cicada broods in Connecticut and “not all the populations that hatch here have been recorded.” It is even possible, he noted, that there could be some Generation X cicadas around.

“There used to be some in New York City and in Northern New Jersey. But it seems they have disappeared, probably due to human development.”

There is another theory, however. Some scientists believe there are more cicadas now than there ever were, that they are growing in numbers because of deforestation.

Cicadas like the warmth of sunlit forest edges and younger trees where they will lay their eggs in the small twigs. The eggs hatch into nymphs that crawl down the tree trunks and burrow into the ground where they will feed on young tree roots. The nymphs stay there for years and years before coming back to the surface as adults ready to breed. The cycle could be seven years or it could be 17.

For periodic 17-year cicadas in Generation X, now is the time and the Southeast is the place.

Knowing this, there are only two choices left for a nature nut living in Connecticut who wants to experience this brief but gloriously noisy insect emergence. He or she must keep eyes peeled and ears cocked in the hopes of catching its northern edge.

Listen for the buzz. Or climb into the car and head south –– just to be where the action is.

If You Go: The states that are officially expected to see Generation X cicadas emerging within the next two weeks are Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington, D. C.