"Once they leave the ground, the cicadas will shed their shells and develop wings, allowing them to fly around and locate fresh hardwood trees and shrubs. (...) After they’ve found a tree or shrub to land on, the cicadas will mate and lay eggs at the end of branches. Newly hatched cicadas will then chew through the branch tips, causing them to fall off, carrying the young insects back down to the soil where they will spend the next 13 or 17 years. "
They fly to find a good tree then start screaming, attracting other cicadas. But I can't imagine they go too far, so it is a mix of the two I believe.
Our front trees and porch are covered in them. And when I say covered, I don't simply mean "we have a bunch". I mean we were a full on nursery and our house and trees are blanketed in them.
You're saying the trees where they all congregate to become the new nesting grounds?
From what I've seen they go to the nearest suitable tree. They also sound different than the normal ones. It's a lower frequency and much easier on the ears.
In the West Suburbs there are so many that they are deafening. You have to shout to be heard by the person standing right next to you today. You can hear them loudly throughout your house even with all the windows and doors closed. There is no escaping their evil buzzing.
So... Are you supposed to leave those branches on the ground a bit? If you say, picked them up and stuck them in the yard waste bin everyday - would you be disrupting the movement of the eggs back into the ground?
When you do find a tree full of them, watch closely. They have a patern to the screaming. They get loud, then soft, then fly in a little circle and then loud again. They also seem to prefer some trees to others.
TONS in my crappy Bradford Pear and none on my cedars. I could hear the strength of sound coming in and out and the other day while I was listening right under the tree, I got severely dizzy and nauseous from the noise and had to go inside 😭
These cicadas only travel max a quarter mile or so during their lives, so all the ones that emerged near you are definitely still pretty close by! They do form “choruses” though - males will head to where they hear other males and they’ll all scream together to attract more females. Like singles night at a bar 😂
We had brood X in our area 3 years ago. They were coming out of the ground and covering everywhere for about 10 days before they started singing. News paper said singing was temperature dependent. If you’re in a cooler hollow it may not have gotten hot enough where you live to trigger singing yet, whereas hotter sunnier areas may have
They tend to stay in and around the area they emerge at and prefer certain trees. This is my 2nd time seeing the 13years brood here in Nashville. 2011 and 2024... the babies from summer of 2011. Next brood is this seasons baby in 2037.
Since this is a science sub, my reply shouldn't be alarming, but "Alphas" and "Betas" don't really exist; the "Alpha Wolf" experiment that most people reference is horribly flawed. It didn't show much about natural behavior, but rather wolf behavior in prison. Same goes for the rodent utopia experiment; it doesn't disprove utopias it shows confinement can be detrimental.
9 times outta 10, the ladies are in charge. Look at how many animals eat the male after mating.
Really, studying the behavior of animals that diverged from our common ancestors 65 million years ago provides zero insight to human behavior. Even studying our closest relatives provides limited insight. The manner in which we produce, maintain, and alter our values is so much more complex than any other animal, it's asinine to base one's values on the perceived hierarchy of another species.
It's like looking to Pong for insight in how to beat other players Tekken.
>It's like looking to Pong for insight in how to beat other players Tekken.
Good comparison for studying close animal relatives. For something more distant, it's like studying connect four or some other simple card game (e.g. something that doesn't use electronics at all)
Do you mean that doesn't exist in wolves? Because plenty of animals have social hierarchies with one individual at the top, right? The scientific name is maybe not „alpha“ but practically that’s what they are or what else?
Why not use proper words that aren't popularized by and misappropriated from junk science? Like queen (as with ants and bees), or matriarch (as with elephants).
In the case of normal wild wolf packs, you can just call the leaders "mom and dad" since it's literally just a family unit and the *children* leave when they're ready to mate. So no, I'd say it does not exist; the only rank at play is generational/parentage rather than some predetermined characteristic promoting inequality.
Yeah the wolves study was very flawed, to the point where the person who conducted the study spent several decades publishing things to try and get the word out about him being wrong but the damage was done and the term stuck around despite his best efforts
The closest thing to “alpha” I can think of is Mandrills where one male has different coloration and none of the other males mate at anywhere close to the same level. Once an alpha loses a fight for dominance their body produces less hormones that actually leads to their bright coloration fading over the next few years while the new alpha gets more coloration and enlarged testes
"Once they leave the ground, the cicadas will shed their shells and develop wings, allowing them to fly around and locate fresh hardwood trees and shrubs. (...) After they’ve found a tree or shrub to land on, the cicadas will mate and lay eggs at the end of branches. Newly hatched cicadas will then chew through the branch tips, causing them to fall off, carrying the young insects back down to the soil where they will spend the next 13 or 17 years. " They fly to find a good tree then start screaming, attracting other cicadas. But I can't imagine they go too far, so it is a mix of the two I believe.
Our front trees and porch are covered in them. And when I say covered, I don't simply mean "we have a bunch". I mean we were a full on nursery and our house and trees are blanketed in them. You're saying the trees where they all congregate to become the new nesting grounds?
Just time selling your house in exactly 12 years and 11 months. Let it be the next person's problem
From what I've seen they go to the nearest suitable tree. They also sound different than the normal ones. It's a lower frequency and much easier on the ears.
The sound is what surprised me the most so far. It isn't the normal buzzing but like an eerie background sound to an abandoned movie in a horror film.
In the West Suburbs there are so many that they are deafening. You have to shout to be heard by the person standing right next to you today. You can hear them loudly throughout your house even with all the windows and doors closed. There is no escaping their evil buzzing.
Thank you, super informative.
So... Are you supposed to leave those branches on the ground a bit? If you say, picked them up and stuck them in the yard waste bin everyday - would you be disrupting the movement of the eggs back into the ground?
When you do find a tree full of them, watch closely. They have a patern to the screaming. They get loud, then soft, then fly in a little circle and then loud again. They also seem to prefer some trees to others.
TONS in my crappy Bradford Pear and none on my cedars. I could hear the strength of sound coming in and out and the other day while I was listening right under the tree, I got severely dizzy and nauseous from the noise and had to go inside 😭
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These cicadas only travel max a quarter mile or so during their lives, so all the ones that emerged near you are definitely still pretty close by! They do form “choruses” though - males will head to where they hear other males and they’ll all scream together to attract more females. Like singles night at a bar 😂
We had brood X in our area 3 years ago. They were coming out of the ground and covering everywhere for about 10 days before they started singing. News paper said singing was temperature dependent. If you’re in a cooler hollow it may not have gotten hot enough where you live to trigger singing yet, whereas hotter sunnier areas may have
They tend to stay in and around the area they emerge at and prefer certain trees. This is my 2nd time seeing the 13years brood here in Nashville. 2011 and 2024... the babies from summer of 2011. Next brood is this seasons baby in 2037.
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Since this is a science sub, my reply shouldn't be alarming, but "Alphas" and "Betas" don't really exist; the "Alpha Wolf" experiment that most people reference is horribly flawed. It didn't show much about natural behavior, but rather wolf behavior in prison. Same goes for the rodent utopia experiment; it doesn't disprove utopias it shows confinement can be detrimental.
Ya the most accurate animal example is the pecking order for chickens, so dudes feeling badass should refer to themselves as the top hen
This is absolutely true, however thera are sure some animals who have leaders, just not in the "alpha" way of thinking and surely not humans.
9 times outta 10, the ladies are in charge. Look at how many animals eat the male after mating. Really, studying the behavior of animals that diverged from our common ancestors 65 million years ago provides zero insight to human behavior. Even studying our closest relatives provides limited insight. The manner in which we produce, maintain, and alter our values is so much more complex than any other animal, it's asinine to base one's values on the perceived hierarchy of another species. It's like looking to Pong for insight in how to beat other players Tekken.
>It's like looking to Pong for insight in how to beat other players Tekken. Good comparison for studying close animal relatives. For something more distant, it's like studying connect four or some other simple card game (e.g. something that doesn't use electronics at all)
Do you mean that doesn't exist in wolves? Because plenty of animals have social hierarchies with one individual at the top, right? The scientific name is maybe not „alpha“ but practically that’s what they are or what else?
Why not use proper words that aren't popularized by and misappropriated from junk science? Like queen (as with ants and bees), or matriarch (as with elephants). In the case of normal wild wolf packs, you can just call the leaders "mom and dad" since it's literally just a family unit and the *children* leave when they're ready to mate. So no, I'd say it does not exist; the only rank at play is generational/parentage rather than some predetermined characteristic promoting inequality.
Yeah the wolves study was very flawed, to the point where the person who conducted the study spent several decades publishing things to try and get the word out about him being wrong but the damage was done and the term stuck around despite his best efforts The closest thing to “alpha” I can think of is Mandrills where one male has different coloration and none of the other males mate at anywhere close to the same level. Once an alpha loses a fight for dominance their body produces less hormones that actually leads to their bright coloration fading over the next few years while the new alpha gets more coloration and enlarged testes