Cicadas are mostly harmless; dogs find them delicious
(Published Tuesday, June 5, 2007 11:23:49 AM CST)
A d v e r t i s e m e n t
By Chris Schultz Gazette staff
LAKE GENEVA-The cicada invasion is in full swing around Geneva Lake.
Some folks are flocking into the area to see them. And some dogs can't wait to eat them.
Also called 17-year-locusts, the cicadas, which are in fact not locusts, emerge from the ground once every 17 years to sing, mate and die.
They are related to the cicadas that hatch annually and usually are heard in late August.
By now, most of the harmless, orange-eyed, 1½-inch insects are out of their pupae stage, climbing trees and generally blundering about while filling the air with song.
Adult cicadas and discarded shells crowd a branch on Janesville's north side late last week. The insects emerge every 17 years.
Bill Olmsted/Gazette Staff
In another six weeks or so, all of the 17-year cicadas will be dead. Cicada eggs laid on live tree twigs will be set to start the 17-year cycle all over again.
"They're crazy around here," said Ted Peters, director of the Geneva Lake Environmental Agency. The agency's office is on the campus of George Williams College in Williams Bay.
"Any place there was a woods and is still a woods, we'll have them," Peters said.
Peters said he first heard their distinctive buzzing about May 25. He said the cicadas can usually be heard singing early morning and late in the evening.
"We have people coming here to see them," said Anne Korman, manager of Big Foot Beach State Park near Lake Geneva.
The greatest concentrations seem to be around the camping areas, where there are plenty of trees, Korman said. She said she noticed a large concentration near where the park sells firewood for campers. She said the tall grass around the trees is bent down with the weight of cicadas.
People aren't the only ones intrigued.
"My dog thinks they taste good," said George Hennerley, executive vice president of the Geneva Lake Area Chamber of Commerce.
Gazette reporter Ann Marie Ames uses a pair of salad tongs to pluck a 17-year cicada from a tree. She collected about 150 of the insects to use as ingredients in granola cookies and zucchini bread.
Bill Olmsted/Gazette Staff
Hennerley said one of his two cocker spaniels snaps up the bugs when he can. The other dog ignores them. However, he's not concerned about his bug-eating dog.
Still, some dog owners are concerned about their pets' desire to crunch down on the noisy critters.
Mona Hodkiewicz, veterinarian and co-owner of the Lake Geneva Animal Hospital, 801 Townline Road, Lake Geneva, said she's received calls from dog owners wondering whether eating the insects will do Rover any harm.
The good news for dog lovers is that the crunchy insect isn't poisonous, nor is it known to carry parasites, according to a statement released by Dr. Timothy Yoshino, a parasitologist at the UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine.
Some golfers have reported that the insects are crowded onto local links.
But not all courses.
Damon Soderberg of Hawk's View Golf Course near Lake Geneva said the cicadas haven't been a problem there.
Hawk's View was built seven years ago. Landscaping work almost certainly wiped out local batch of cicadas, Soderberg said.
But Soderberg also said loads of the insects have been seen around the undisturbed edges of the Hawk's View grounds.
The buzz on cicadas The buzz of the cicada is a familiar part of late summer in southern Wisconsin.
But a special cicada song already has started in southern Wisconsin trees, and it's getting loud.
-- Once every 17 years, a brood of periodic cicadas hatches in the billions to the west and south of Lake Michigan. They are one of seven broods of periodic cicadas that hatch in pockets around North America.
-- There are nearly 2,000 species of cicadas in the world and probably that many yet undiscovered.
-- Hiding underground and hatching in enormous numbers are evolutionary tools to help cicadas outwit predators.
-- The huge number of periodic cicadas could be devastating to trees because developing cicadas feed on roots. But their metabolism is so slow they do not harm the trees.
-- The cicada's ability to "sing" is the most developed in the insect word. Only males make noise, and the calls attract females of the same species.
-- The sound is made by wobbling two membranes, called tymbals. The sound resonates inside the male cicada's hollow abdomen.
-- Male and female cicadas hear with membranes called "tympana." Males can crease their tympana to avoid deafening themselves.
The cicada life cycle
-- After newly emerged cicadas dry out and harden, they head to the treetops to find mates.
-- The adults live only for a few weeks, and they do not eat.
-- Before they die, female cicadas lay up to 600 eggs.
-- When the eggs mature, nymphs drop to the ground and burrow as deep as 2 feet, where they grow from one to 17 years, depending on the species.
-- When nature calls, the nymphs emerge and shed their skins.
Sources: "The Encyclopedia of Insects" Academic Press, 2003.
"World Book Encyclopedia" 2005 edition
"Insects: Their Natural History and Diversity" by Stephen A. Marshall, Firefly Books, 2006.
