Great timing! this is essentially how they function, they don't really have mouths or anything to use to defend itself. They basically mate and die. They are a great food source for many animals. Because of this they typically go dormant for a prime number of years (3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, etc.) that way two swarms are less likely to popup at the same time. They just produce lots of babies in hopes that some survive. Pretty cool. I wonder if this is just a single swarm or multiple that happened to fall on the same year.
This is brood X. They pop up every 17 years and are the biggest one time population of cicadas we get. It’s pretty cool to watch the process happen, but not fun walking outside and not being able hear anything but them screaming. At least they have a normal sleep cycle....
Great timing! this is essentially how they function, they don't really have mouths or anything to use to defend itself. They basically mate and die. They are a great food source for many animals. Because of this they typically go dormant for a prime number of years (3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, etc.) that way two swarms are less likely to popup at the same time. They just produce lots of babies in hopes that some survive. Pretty cool. I wonder if this is just a single swarm or multiple that happened to fall on the same year.
This is brood X. They pop up every 17 years and are the biggest one time population of cicadas we get. It’s pretty cool to watch the process happen, but not fun walking outside and not being able hear anything but them screaming. At least they have a normal sleep cycle....