LAKE GENEVA, Wis. — They're here.
The Wisconsin DNR says this year's highly hyped cicada emergence is happening in the southeastern part of the state. A resident of Lake Geneva sent in photos taken Friday, May 17, capturing insects that have been positively identified as Brood XIII cicadas.
“Dozens are hatching in my yard,” the photographer said in an email to the DNR.
The type of cicada hatching in southeastern Wisconsin only emerges from underground every 17 years. University of Wisconsin-Madison's Insect Diagnostics Lab Director PJ Liesch - better known as The Wisconsin Bug Guy - tells the Milwaukee Journal that this summer is the first time since 2007 that the Brood XIII bugs will come out. He explains that they spend most of their lives underground as juveniles feeding on tree roots and avoiding predators, and after emerging as adult cicadas, will only live about four to six weeks.
That limited run is a good thing, as the DNR warns residents that the mating call of the cicada can be deafening AND annoying. They emerge en masse, with tens of thousands per acre, and after they mate their dead carcasses can become a nuisance as they litter the ground.
On the positive side, cicadas don't bite or sting, and some people actually collect and eat them (cicadas are known as "tree shrimp).
There is another Brood of cicada - XIX - that is expected to emerge along with the XIII in Illinois and other states south but likely not in Wisconsin. Records indicate this will be the first time the two broods have emerged together since 1803, 221 years ago.
DNR entomologists say cicadas are expected to keep emerging in southern Wisconsin into June and will not appear again in the state until 2041. They are asking residents who spot cicadas on their property or public lands to report the sighting on the Cicada Safari app to help track the co-emergence of Broods XIII and XIX.
For more information on cicadas, visit a special page on the UW-Madison website.
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