Chicago Tribune | The Chicago Gardener

Chicago and the surrounding suburbs are going a little crazy waiting for the 17-year cicadas to emerge. I’ve lived here 11 years, and apparently the noisy buggers that annoy the shit out of me every summer are nothing compared to the much larger swarms of noisy buggers that emerge on the 17-year cycle.

As I was leaving work, there was a “puff” piece on the local news with a lady newscaster and a whole bunch of schoolkids dressed up in pink construction paper cicada hats. They were all mighty disappointed, because the cicadas failed to show – not where they were, anyway. After returning to my desk from the break room, one of the team leaders passed me at a run – she was heading out to meet a friend to look for cicadas.

But why???? I don’t think I’m all that into hordes of bugs frantically emerging, climbing, and singing, looking for love and leaving molted shells all over. Some of the gardening tips (ie. “don’t let your dog eat too many, or he might get sick.” ) are pretty creepy. I’ve seen one “annual”

In our subdivision, we probably don’t have much to worry about – there aren’t that many “old” trees and the ground was certainly disturbed in the area between now and the last big emergence. Still, you never know – and we’ll probably hear their raucous, buzzing lovesongs no matter what, as they try to mate and lay eggs in twigs and so on for the next 4 to 6 weeks.