Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff Lawn bold bomb here in May or April
Speaker 1: of this year. One of the largest broods of seventeen
Speaker 1: year Cicadas brewed ten written with the Roman numeral X,
Speaker 1: is going to emerge from its underground layers across the
Speaker 1: eastern United States, from New York down to Georgia and
Speaker 1: west out to Illinois. These are periodical cicadas, insects measuring
Speaker 1: about one and a half inches or four centimeters in length,
Speaker 1: with a red orange hue and protruding red eyes. This
Speaker 1: coloring is an easy way to identify periodical cicadas from
Speaker 1: other species, including the more common dog day cicadas, which
Speaker 1: appear every year at the end of summer and have
Speaker 1: green tinged wings. Periodical cicadas make a rare appearance, relegated
Speaker 1: only to the regions east of the United States Great Plains,
Speaker 1: and nowhere else in the world. In eighteen nine, three
Speaker 1: observers began organizing periodical cicada as into broods. This makes
Speaker 1: it easier to track the insects infrequent arrivals. Each brood
Speaker 1: includes different species of cicadas that emerge together in a
Speaker 1: collective and noisy bid to find suitable mates. There are
Speaker 1: twelve broods of seventeen year cicadas and three broods of
Speaker 1: thirteen year cicadas, which are more prevalent in the southeastern
Speaker 1: part of the United States. Each brood operates on a
Speaker 1: different schedule, which means you don't have to wait thirteen
Speaker 1: or seventeen years to witness the insects next in mass eruption.
Speaker 1: After this year's brewed ten appearance, will get broods thirteen
Speaker 1: and nineteen four and brewed fourteen in. The sudden appearance
Speaker 1: of seventeen year cicadas is one of nature's most spectacular events,
Speaker 1: a phenomenon that perhaps led to the fanciful naming of
Speaker 1: the periodical cicadas genus classification magic Cicada. For centuries, periodical
Speaker 1: cicadas have fascinated scientists and casual observers alike. Millions of
Speaker 1: cicadas may emerge in a single night after spending seventeen
Speaker 1: or thirteen years living underground, feeding off of nutrients sucked
Speaker 1: from the roots of trees and other plants. It's this
Speaker 1: lengthy childhood that serves as an important distinction that enables
Speaker 1: them to have the longest lifespan of any insect in
Speaker 1: North America, seventeen year. Cicadas spend the earliest months of
Speaker 1: their final year burrowing towards the soil's surface. When the
Speaker 1: soil temperature rises above sixty four degrees fahrenheit or about
Speaker 1: eighteen degrees celsius, the cicada nymphs venture out of the soil.
Speaker 1: Their population may number a million or more in a
Speaker 1: space smaller than an acre less than half a hector,
Speaker 1: which helps survival rates. Animals ranging from spiders and birds
Speaker 1: to dogs and snakes find the lumbering cicada's easy prey,
Speaker 1: but will eat their fill long before they put a
Speaker 1: dent in the population. The then flightless young cicada's journey
Speaker 1: upward at sunset, crawling a foot or more up any
Speaker 1: nearby vertical surface tree trunks, weeds, woody shrubs, homes, or
Speaker 1: outbuildings to begin the next phase of life. Overnight, they'll
Speaker 1: shed their nymphul skins a much like the fictional Incredible Hulk.
Speaker 1: The cicadas will split their shell like clothing to unleash
Speaker 1: larger bodies, and as they emerge through the tops of
Speaker 1: their shells, the cicadas will unfurl their wings for the
Speaker 1: first time. Now the cicada is an adult, soft, ashen
Speaker 1: and vulnerable, waiting for its exoskeleton to harden and darken
Speaker 1: in color. It will leave its crunchy larval casing behind,
Speaker 1: still clinging to the cicada's first above ground resting place.
Speaker 1: The casing will be an empty and forgotten outline of
Speaker 1: the creature at once held. Not all cicadas appear on
Speaker 1: a strict schedule, though there are also some known as stragglers,
Speaker 1: that appear a year later or earlier than the rest
Speaker 1: of their brood. One year early or one year late
Speaker 1: is the most common time frame for stragglers, but this
Speaker 1: isn't always the case either. In the year two thousand,
Speaker 1: for example, many brewd ten cicadas appeared four years earlier
Speaker 1: than expected. It Some observers theorize that unseasonably warm weather
Speaker 1: may cause some stragglers to emerge early. Others suggest delayed
Speaker 1: development may cause some stragglers to arrive late. Scientists aren't
Speaker 1: exactly sure how cicadas no seventeen years or thirteen years
Speaker 1: have passed in the first place. They think it might
Speaker 1: have something to do with some property in the fluid
Speaker 1: that they suck out of tree roots for nourishment when
Speaker 1: they're underground, something that reflects the yearly cycle of the tree. Perhaps,
Speaker 1: if whatever this chemical signal is is weaker for insects
Speaker 1: under one type of tree versus another, that causes the
Speaker 1: off schedule appearances. Interestingly, the prime number appearances are thought
Speaker 1: to help with survival. Since the cicadas are not on
Speaker 1: the same two year or five year cycle as most
Speaker 1: of their predators, the predators don't become dependent on them
Speaker 1: for food. Stragglers who missed the big party are more
Speaker 1: likely to be eaten off. Periodical cicadas, whether they're a
Speaker 1: thirteen year or seventeen year species, will live for just
Speaker 1: three or four weeks above ground, only long enough to
Speaker 1: mate and, in the case of female cicadas, deposit eggs.
Speaker 1: This mate then die cycle is pretty common in the
Speaker 1: insect world. Male cicadas attempt to attract females with a
Speaker 1: loud buzzing that seems to undulate up and down between
Speaker 1: two distinct notes. Although each species of periodical cicada has
Speaker 1: its own song, the response of female cicadas varies little
Speaker 1: exactly one third of one second after the male's song ceases.
Speaker 1: A female responds with a click of her wings, but
Speaker 1: only if she wants him to make further advances. The
Speaker 1: male counters with the same call, hoping to hear another
Speaker 1: wing click. If he does, he makes two particular sounds
Speaker 1: in quick succession, awaits for a third wing click, and
Speaker 1: then it's on. Within about ten days, the female will
Speaker 1: deposit some four hundred eggs in small twigs and branches
Speaker 1: of nearby trees and shrubs, but choosing from among the
Speaker 1: eighty or so species that they prefer to use as
Speaker 1: an nurseries. The females have protruding needle like devices at
Speaker 1: the end of their abdomens, which are used to create
Speaker 1: an egg cradle in the wood. Female cicadas may repeat
Speaker 1: the egg laying process dozens of times. In about six weeks,
Speaker 1: white nymphs the size of ants will emerge from the eggs,
Speaker 1: drop to the ground and work their way into the soil.
Speaker 1: Like their parents, they'll spend the next thirteen or seventeen
Speaker 1: years feeding on fluid found in plant roots. Although cicada's
Speaker 1: root feeding is considered harmless, damage caused by female cicadas
Speaker 1: burrowing into trees and shrubs to deposit eggs can be
Speaker 1: significant twigs may break off, which can create production issues
Speaker 1: for fruit and nut orchards, and some caretakers cover small
Speaker 1: trees with mesh cloth to prevent access to bark. Others
Speaker 1: apply in secticides before egg laying occurs, or simply opt
Speaker 1: to wait out the cicada's limited lifespan. However, aside from this,
Speaker 1: these insects are generally harmless to plants and are harmless
Speaker 1: to people, so there's no need to panic if one
Speaker 1: lands on you. And what do you believe that cicada's
Speaker 1: make tasty high protein snacks? Apparently they taste like asparagus
Speaker 1: thanks to their plant based diets. The best ones to
Speaker 1: eat are those still in the nymph stage that don't
Speaker 1: have their hard outer shells yet. You can deep fry
Speaker 1: them and serve them with spicy sauce. Today's episode is
Speaker 1: based on the article why do seventeen years cicadas come
Speaker 1: out more often than every seventeen years? On how Stuffworks
Speaker 1: dot Com? Written by Lori Elda. Brain Stuff is production
Speaker 1: of I heart Radio in partnership with how stuff works
Speaker 1: dot Com and is produced by Tyler Clay. For more
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