Get Ready for the Return of Cicadas in Indiana Kentucky and Tennessee
Grab your earplugs! Cicadas are coming to parts of Kentucky, Tennessee, and even Indiana.
Spring is here, and with the ground warming, it's almost time for the next emergence of periodical brood cicada. These noisy insects have six legs, two pairs of wings, and a recurring, years-long life cycle.
Why Cicadas Make That Loud Screaming Sound
Ever wondered why the trees seem to sound like they are screaming in the spring? The answer is cicadas! When they emerge, the males make that "screaming" sound. It's a mating call of sorts, although they aren't actually screaming.
How Do Cicadas Make That Loud Screaming Sound
That sound is produced when male cicadas vibrate membranes on the sides of their bodies known as tymbals. As the membranes vibrate, that vibration then resonates through the chambers of the insects' trachea, creating their infamous scream song.
Males cluster in groups and produce loud choruses to attract females to mate with. After mating, female cicadas excavate furrows in slender tree branches and deposit their eggs. The larvae hatch, drop to the ground, and burrow beneath the soil again. - National Wildlife Federation
How Cicadas Use Strength in Numbers to Survive
When they do emerge, why are there just so darn many of them? As it turns out, it's an evolutionary adaptation to ensure the survival of the species. The National Parks Service explains that it allows predators to eat while leaving enough cicadas alive to reproduce, carrying on the life cycle.
By coming out in huge numbers, all the predators that eat cicadas can get their fill and there will still be plenty of cicadas left to breed and perpetuate the species. It's a survival strategy call prey satiation. There are more cicadas than all the combined predators can eat. - NPS
Where Periodical Cicadas Are Found in the United States
Periodical Cicadas call the Midwest and Eastern parts of the United States home. There are 15 periodical broods - twelve broods are 17-year cicadas and three broods are 13-year cicadas. In between emergences, periodical cicadas spend their time in their larval state. It is in this stage of their life cycle that they are burrowed into the ground, awaiting their time to emerge and shed their final molt.
What to Know About the 17-Year Cicadas Emerging in 2025
In spring 2025, we will be seeing (and hearing!) a 17-year periodical brood known as Brood XIV (14). These cicadas are expected to emerge once the ground temperature reaches 64 degrees across a large portion of Kentucky and Tennessee, and some parts of Southwestern Indiana.
Protecting Your Trees From Cicadas This Spring
If you live in these areas and are planning to plant any trees this spring, you may want to rethink your plans. Because female cicadas lay eggs in young tree branches, newly planted trees may not survive. The National Parks Service recommends either planting trees in the fall this year or covering young, newly planted trees in protective netting to prohibit access to the cicadas.
READ MORE: Massive Piles of Cicadas in Residential Neighborhood
Can You Eat Cicadas and What Do They Taste Like
The National Wildlife Federation says that people who have eaten periodical cicadas say they "taste similar to canned asparagus." However, if you happen to have an allergy to shrimp or lobster, you might be allergic to cicadas as well.
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