And other answers to your cicada questions
QUESTION: Are all the cicadas out of the ground yet?
ANSWER: About 95 percent of the bugs have emerged. The vast majority of cicadas will live until about the third week in June. The last of the cicadas should be dead by June 25.
Q: Is this an Ohio phenom?
A: Absolutely not. Brood X cicadas are emerging in Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and West Virginia.
Q: How many species of Brood X cicadas are there?
A: Three. There are only slight differences in size and appearance between the species, but they do have different mating calls so females can tell them apart.
Q: Do cicadas have eyelids?
A: No. They do not blink.
Q: Do cicadas smell after they die?
A: Yes, dead cicada corpses will decay in the heat of summer and begin to smell like ripe Limburger cheese. The odor will last for about two weeks, or into mid-July. Some places smell rotten already.
Q: When will the cicada eggs hatch?
A: About six to eight weeks after being deposited in tree branches, sometime late this month. The juvenile cicadas then drop to the ground and immediately bury themselves.
Q: What should I do with the dead cicadas littering my driveway and yard?
A: You can sweep them up and reduce the smell in your yard. But it's also OK to do nothing. Dead cicadas are biodegradable and will blend back into the soil from which they came.
Q: Will the cicadas I smash with my car harm my paint?
A: They can if you don't wash them off in a reasonable amount of time. Insects, in general, are caustic and over time will adhere to automobile paint, making it difficult to remove their remains.
Q: Who is Gene Kritsky?
A: A man, just a man, who happens to love cicadas and Charles Darwin. Dr. Gene Kritsky is a biology professor at the College of Mount St. Joseph in Delhi Township and a world-renowned cicada researcher who became the first person to accurately predict the early emergence of a few thousand Brood X cicadas four years ago. He is working on a statewide map of the cicada emergence.
Sources: Gene Kritsky and cicadamania.com
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