Carolina Curious: Where are all the cicadas?

Bill McIlwain of Winston-Salem has a question that’s been bugging him:

“I’m curious about the cicadas that I’ve heard so much about. People tell me that they’ve heard them in Durham and elsewhere in the state. What’s going on?”

In the latest edition of Carolina Curious, WFDD’s Paul Garber tackles this buzz-worthy topic.

So, first things first. We get cicadas every year. This year is special though because our annual group is being joined by a separate brood that only comes out once every thirteen years. 

Their sounds are similar, but they’re easy to tell apart visually says Daniel Greene, an entomologist and assistant professor of biology at High Point University.

“So our annual cicadas, they're going to be green and black in coloration, whereas your periodical cicadas are going to be black-bodied with orange wing veins, and they have red eyes,” he says.

The key to seeing or hearing them is, like a lot of things, a matter of location, location, location. Greene says cicadas are only found in about 20 counties in North Carolina. Fortunately, if you like cicadas, some of our Piedmont counties are among them.

We’re at the tail end of their season, Greene says, so he encourages folks to get out and hear them while they’re still around.

“I just think it's a great thing especially if you have children to be able to introduce your children to a very magical experience," he says. "And in fact, the genus for our periodical cicadas is called Magicicada, because they are indeed that interesting.”

Greene points out that cicadas are big and relatively slow, which makes them an important source of nutrition for our area wildlife.