Drone on: Alabama cicadas get help from a few billion friends

It reads like a 1950s B-movie horror script: Billions — with a B — red-eyed insects emerge from the ground, metamorphosing to winged creatures only to make raucous noise as they drive on to propagate the species.

They are cicadas, and their song — that deep, raspy hum coming from the trees — is well known in the South. The bugs emerge about mid-May when the ground warms up, and they hang around through late September.

And while the numbers may be daunting, there’s no need to freak out. Cicadas don’t sting or bite, they feed on plant fluid, and they aren’t venomous. Most people are familiar with their empty shells hanging from trees or wooden structures, evidence that the nymphs have grown into the flying insects and have taken to the branches.

Well, they are mostly harmless. In the nymph stage they are bright green and can be kind of… well, squishy.

“Everything is fine until you walk out on the deck at night barefooted and step on one,” said Caitlin Simms, of Prattville. “Yuck. I used the garden hose to spray all the ick off before I went back into the house.”

The sound of cicadas can be pleasant to some or irritating to others, a soundtrack of summer in the South.

There are 190 species of cicadas in the United States, and more than 3,390 species found worldwide with more species found each year, according to cicadamania.com.

It’s the males making all the strumming, thrumming and drumming. They vibrate an organ known as the tymbal, which is located behind their heads. All the ruckus is to attract a mate.

Figures.

Alabama has more than 20 species of annual cicadas, meaning they appear each summer. Nationally there are periodic cicadas that emerge every 13 and 19 years. Give or take a year.

The periodic cicadas are set to emerge in 2024.

Some of the winged periodic insects are popping up a year early across a number of Midwestern and Southern states, said Gene Kritsky, dean of Behavioral and Natural Sciences at Mount Saint Joseph University in Cincinnati.

“There are not a lot of (periodic) cicadas emerging, and this year is not a full emergence of either brood,” said Kritsky.

Brood XIII cicadas are expected next year in northern Illinois, including the Chicago area; far eastern Iowa; and a sliver of northeastern Indiana, including the Gary, Indiana, area.

Brood XIX cicadas are expected in southern Illinois; Missouri, including the St. Louis area; northern and southern Arkansas; middle Tennessee; northern Louisiana; Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, including the Columbus, Georgia, area; northern and central South Carolina; and central North Carolina, including the Durham area.

"We have been mapping periodical cicadas for the past three years,” Kritsky said. "Last year, we did the unusual and made a concerted effort to look for cicadas when we did not expect any to emerge. We found that a few periodical cicadas emerged in 15 states and the District of Columbia.”

John Abbott, director of museum research and collections at the University of Alabama said Alabama’s annual cicadas, as they’re called, emerge after spending two to five years living underground in their nymph forms where they feed on the roots of trees.

Once they emerge, they morph into their flying adult forms, make a bunch of racket, mate, lay eggs in twigs and die in about three to four weeks.

“Adults are flying around, calling for mates — that’s what the noise is: males calling for a mate,” he said. “It is loud. In fact, the loudest insect in the world is a cicada from Africa.

“The nymphs, whose shells people see, are the longest-lived life stage, which is spent underground so you don’t see them most of their lives.”

During periodic cicada years, more than 1.5 million of the insects can emerge per acre, Abbott said.

The appearance of cicadas are a boon to local predators and other animals. They serve as a repast for everything from birds to snakes to foxes, racoons and opossums.

Occasionally, they may be munched on by pets, but no real worries there. Fluffy the cat or Fido the dog may get upset stomachs from noshing on them, but that’s about the extent of any discomfort or problems.

Following are some cicada facts from the Cicada Safari.org website:

• Cicadas emerge after the soil temperature exceeds 64 degrees, which is usually in mid May
• Only male cicadas sing, through sound-producing structures called tymbals on either side of the abdomen under the wings
• Cicadas do not eat solid food but do drink fluids to avoid dehydration
• Cicadas do not sting, bite or carry diseases
• Periodical cicada years are beneficial to the ecology of the region: Their egg-laying in trees is a natural pruning that results in increased numbers of flowers and fruits in the succeeding years; their emergence from the ground turns over large amounts of soil; after they die their decaying bodies contribute a massive amount of nutrients to the soil.
• Periodical cicadas are often incorrectly called locusts. Locusts are grasshoppers, and cicadas are more closely related to aphids than grasshoppers.

Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Marty Roney at mroney@gannett.com.