Brood X

Brood X cicadas have arrived in MD, and they are numerous and noisy. 

Beginning in mid-May, we noticed a few of their discarded carcasses on one sycamore tree along our walk. The birds were quite happy to see them, and we've seen the neighborhood sparrows and cardinals feasting on them. 

Then we started seeing more and more cicadas. I have to avoid them when I'm hanging laundry and John always has a few hit him in the chest when he goes out for a bike ride.

In real life, they are about an inch long with a four inch wingspan. They don't bite, sting, or harm humans or most plants. They lay their eggs in trees, so some small tree branches can be harmed if too many eggs have been laid on them, but plant damage isn't common. They should be active above ground until the end of June, when the young drop to the ground and burrow into the soil. There they'll molt four times over the next 17 years and then the cycle will start again. 

While they don't harm humans or most plants, they are the loudest insects on earth. Male cicadas use their wings and special organs called tymbals to create their "song" (and I use this term loosely). The chorus of male cicadas is about 100 decibels, or about as loud as a lawnmower. It seems to be at a frequency that hurts my ears and feels like its burrowing into my brain. But with cicadas estimated at a density as high as 1 million per acre, they win.

I took this short video to try and illustrate what it sounds like outside. These are on the ivy covering the trunk of the pine tree in our back yard, and hopefully you can get an idea of what their "song" sounds like. (My neighbors' poor dog feels compelled to bark at the cicadas whenever he's outdoors, so you'll hear him, too.)

I'm personally looking forward to the quiet that I hope is coming at the end of June!