# 17 year locusts (cicadas, if you prefer) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 8, 2003, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/17-year-locusts-cicadas-if-you-prefer/173835 "2003-05-08T03:50:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Knighted\_Vorpal\_Sword](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ac91a4/32.png) [@Knighted\_Vorpal\_Sword](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knighted_Vorpal_Sword)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/17-year-locusts-cicadas-if-you-prefer/173835/1 "2003-05-08T03:50:10Z")
Does anyone know when the next cycle is supposed to hit Maryland? My wife has already told me that she’s moving away when the cicadas return. Do I need to help her start packing for this year? ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/17-year-locusts-cicadas-if-you-prefer/173835/2 "2003-05-08T03:51:52Z")
They were in Chevy Chase in 1970, so I would expect 2004. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/17-year-locusts-cicadas-if-you-prefer/173835/3 "2003-05-08T04:30:16Z")
The periodic cicadas are divided into many different broods, which emerge in different years. As this [map of Virginia](http://www.ext.vt.edu/pubs/entomology/444-276/444-276.html) depicts, emergence dates vary from county to county. I didn’t find an online map for Maryland, however: > [@](#): > > periodical cicadas (Brood X)are due to emerge in the Baltimore, Washington, DC and western Maryland area in 2004. [Cicada Mania Weblog](http://www.dancentury.com/cicada/weblog.html) There _may_ be a map for Maryland hidden in the results of this search: [“17 year cicada” brood](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&safe=off&as_qdr=all&q=+%2217+year+cicada%22+brood) ---
**Author:** ![Jplacer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/85f322/32.png) [@Jplacer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jplacer)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/17-year-locusts-cicadas-if-you-prefer/173835/4 "2003-05-08T05:05:41Z")
We had them in West Virginia in 1999 and they are pretty damn creepy. ---
**Author:** ![Strainger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/strainger/32/244_2.png) [@Strainger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strainger)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/17-year-locusts-cicadas-if-you-prefer/173835/5 "2003-05-08T06:36:47Z")
Oh come on people. If you would just let the Israelis go, you wouldn’t have this problem. Have Moses part Chesapeake Bay, or something. Wait, I have the wrong time, location, and species, don’t I? Never mind then. Carry on. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/17-year-locusts-cicadas-if-you-prefer/173835/6 "2003-05-08T14:33:56Z")
Yes, they’re due in '04. B-more had them in '87 ---
**Author:** ![bayonet1976](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/77aa72/32.png) [@bayonet1976](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bayonet1976)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/17-year-locusts-cicadas-if-you-prefer/173835/7 "2003-05-08T14:37:36Z")
What’s wrong with cicadas? Yes, they can get a little loud, but I find their drone oddly soothing. And you get to collect all those empty exoskeletons left on trees when they shed. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/17-year-locusts-cicadas-if-you-prefer/173835/8 "2003-05-08T14:44:30Z")
Yeah, I remember the 1987 Washington DC plague. It was cool. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/17-year-locusts-cicadas-if-you-prefer/173835/9 "2003-05-08T14:54:03Z")
Plus, they’re mighty tasty. ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/17-year-locusts-cicadas-if-you-prefer/173835/10 "2003-05-08T15:10:19Z")
Way back when I asked a [similar question](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=24693&highlight=cicada+AND+invasion). **Lance Turbo** and **Oblio** provided [this mailbag article](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mcicadas.html) and [this cicada enthusiast’s page](http://www.ummz.lsa.umich.edu/Magicicada/Periodical/Index.html), which is surprisingly still active. One of the biggest hatches is [Brood X](http://www.ummz.lsa.umich.edu/Magicicada/Periodical/BroodX.html), due next year. It’s the same brood that **Jonathan Chance** recalls, and the same one in which a kamikaze cicada caused the demise of my friend’s Pontiac GTO by disintegrating on the side view mirror and splattering his face with cicada guts. Drive carefully next year. ---
**Author:** ![UrbanChic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9dc877/32.png) [@UrbanChic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UrbanChic)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/17-year-locusts-cicadas-if-you-prefer/173835/11 "2003-05-08T15:17:22Z")
What’s wrong with cicadas? _What’s wrong with cicadas?!?!?_ Are you high? They’re bugs. Bugs that are flying at me. They’re everywhere. Every-fucking-where. And there are tons of them. _Tons_. I’m creeped out just typing this reply. KVS, to where is your wife moving? I’ll be heading that way, too. The last time those cicadas were out I was a wreck. ---
**Author:** ![NotMrKnowItAll](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/6bbea6/32.png) [@NotMrKnowItAll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NotMrKnowItAll)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/17-year-locusts-cicadas-if-you-prefer/173835/12 "2003-05-08T16:01:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by bayonet1976 \* > \*\*What’s wrong with cicadas? Yes, they can get a little loud, but I find their drone oddly soothing. And you get to collect all those empty exoskeletons left on trees when they shed. \*\* Super nerdy thing I’ve done #1023 One year I measured how high up a tree each and every cicada climbed before emerging from its exoskeleton. I surveyed most trees in the yard. It was a bell-shaped curve. ---
**Author:** ![Knighted\_Vorpal\_Sword](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ac91a4/32.png) [@Knighted\_Vorpal\_Sword](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knighted_Vorpal_Sword)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/17-year-locusts-cicadas-if-you-prefer/173835/13 "2003-05-08T16:13:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by JuanitaTech \* > \*\*KVS, to where is your wife moving? I’ll be heading that way, too. The last time those cicadas were out I was a wreck. \*\* She wants to go to Israel for the summer. I can’t imagine how my 3 kids (all girls) will cope with this. They are not bug people.:eek: ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/17-year-locusts-cicadas-if-you-prefer/173835/14 "2003-05-08T16:55:32Z")
Isn’t Israel where bug infestations of “biblical” proportions happen? No fuckin’ way, man. No fuckin’ way. The northern suburbs of Chicago got hit rather light the last time those critters reared their ugly little heads. Southern suburbs had major infestations. Some scientist said they were trying to hump his lawn mower. Heh. I guess when you have to wait 17 years for the “big day”, you’ll hump anything, right? ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/17-year-locusts-cicadas-if-you-prefer/173835/15 "2003-05-08T18:47:18Z")
My brother and I got to sit outside one balmy early summer evening and watch them burst forth. Literally. My gosh it’s an amazing sight to see them work up the tree and then split the back of the ecto and just…emerge. Humbling I tell ya, humbling. I wanted to spray the shells with polyurethane and make something out of them all, but Mom wouldn’t tolerate my bringing hundreds of them into the house. I love the sound. It’s SO cool. Cartooniverse ---
**Author:** ![Knighted\_Vorpal\_Sword](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ac91a4/32.png) [@Knighted\_Vorpal\_Sword](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knighted_Vorpal_Sword)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/17-year-locusts-cicadas-if-you-prefer/173835/16 "2003-05-08T20:46:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cartooniverse \* > \*\*I love the sound. It’s SO cool. \*\* My wife is originally from Pittsburgh. She moved here to Baltimore when we married almost 13 years ago. Mrs. KVS has never seen or heard anything like this. I guarantee you that she will freak out. ---
**Author:** ![Anamorphic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/anamorphic/32/3057_2.png) [@Anamorphic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anamorphic)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/17-year-locusts-cicadas-if-you-prefer/173835/17 "2003-05-08T20:52:11Z")
Just confirming 1970/1987 were the last two visits in Maryland. I was born in 1970, and my mother tells stories about being attacked by swarms of them while she was pregnant with me. Of course, it being my mother, she probably exaggerates the numbers and the ‘attacked’ part just a bit. My memory of the 1987 return was, towards the end of the summer when they were all starting to die, being outside mowing the lawn and being divebombed by the things. They’re definitely annoying, but I’m not so sure they’re moving-out-of-the-state-to-avoid-them level annoying. ---
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/17-year-locusts-cicadas-if-you-prefer/173835/18 "2003-05-08T23:02:19Z")
I was in the DC area in 87 and when a couple of this clumsy big bug appeared, someone told me they would be everywhere in a few weeks. Yeah, right, I thought. How wrong could I be? Anyway, I’m now in Georgia and they are scheduled to return next year. According to **Sofa King** ’s link, the same brood appears in GA. Anyone know how the cicada density in GA compares with DC? ---
**Author:** ![dwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwyr/32/363_2.png) [@dwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwyr)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/17-year-locusts-cicadas-if-you-prefer/173835/19 "2003-05-09T00:20:12Z")
Heck, we get some cicadas every year. The summer wouldn’t be the same without their droning. I remember one year, though, when I was a kid and several cycles coincided up in Louisville. There were zillions of the things! The sidewalks were carpeted with the exoskeletons. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/17-year-locusts-cicadas-if-you-prefer/173835/20 "2003-05-09T02:00:57Z")
Looks like they will arrive just in time for the 2004 elections … 😃 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/17-year-locusts-cicadas-if-you-prefer/173835.md?page=2)