With the warmer weather upon us, the cicada season is nearing. While cicadas chirping is typical for Illinois summers, University of Illinois Extension Horticulture Educator Chris Enroth says that this year Illinois could see billions to trillions of cicadas emerge throughout the state.
“This year, we are about to experience something that hasn’t happened for over 200 years where we’re going to have two broods of cicadas emerge in Illinois. We’re having our 13-year cicada and our 17-year cicada emerge at the same time,” says Enroth. “Fortunately for folks in Warren County, they will only be encountering cicadas from the Great Northern brood so it’s not like the two broods are emerging on top of each other. There’s the southern brood in Southern Illinois and then there’s the northern brood in Northern Illinois.”
Female cicadas lay eggs in the woody stems of trees. While this is not entirely harmful to grown or established trees, explains Enroth, it can be damaging to younger, newly planted trees.
