PERIODICAL CICADAS

Now Available!

Since I left college, I have been observing periodical cicadas when I can. Now I have written a children's book about this amazing insect. Kids will be fascinated to learn about its wacky life cycle.

Periodical cicadas emerge from their underground haunts after 17 years (13 years in parts of the South) as nymphs feeding on root sap.

Good news! The periodical cicadas will be emerging in this region after 17 long years underground. I wish I had known more about these insects, when they appeared in a friend's yard during my childhood.

I have written a children's book on these cicadas so that kids can get to know them better than I did. With the help of a kickstarter campaign the books are now available.

Periodical cicadas need protection. They are an incredible natural phenomenon, but some people try to get rid of them because there are so many of them. Unfortunately, some people may even confuse them with spotted lanternflies or think of them in the same poor light. Instead, they are a national treasure.

Periodical cicadas are one of the longest living insects, but in any given place they only appear above ground for about six weeks every 13 or 17 years. Though occasionally two broods can be found in one area

In some places they are gone forever, due to pesticides and habitat destruction.

Periodical cicadas feed just about every animal with a mouth that is out and about in May and June. They do make a lot of noise for four weeks every 17 years, and they can damage young trees, but otherwise they do no harm. They don't bite or sting or eat your plants.

Birds go bananas and raise more young during emergence years. Their holes aerate the soil.

This year periodical cicadas are emerging in parts of Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington D.C.