In areas of Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio and elsewhere in the region, cicadas are popping up from their shallow underground burrows already. Once the temperature hits sixty four degrees it is likely that you will start hearing the song of the cicadas if you live in this region of the US.
Dr. David Shetlar, an entomologist with Ohio State University calls the singing activity that you hear from cicadas “chorusing”. Cicadas resort to these loud repetitious sounds in order to keep predators away during mating season and while female cicadas are tending to their offspring. The females spend three weeks laying their eggs, and during that time, the cicada population makes the loudest sounds that they are capable of making, and apparently this is an effective survival strategy.
Once the three week period is over the cicadas cease with their noise making entirely. What results from the weeks of cicada songs is a complete absence of nearby predators, which allows cicadas an unusual amount of free space to build their populations with no worries of onlooking predators.
Have you ever tried to follow the sound of cicadas? If you have, where did you end up?
