Cicada on tomato plant

Brood V 17 year periodical cicadas in Ohio

2016/06/07
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Closeup of cicada
Broods of periodical cicadas emerge in great numbers once every thirteen or seventeen years in various regions of the eastern United States. In 2016, I’ve had the privilege of living in a part of eastern Ohio that has hosted a Brood V Magicicada emergence.

Here, for the record, is a timeline of my cicada observations at my residence in Hocking County:
Cicada on tomato plant

  • May 1: While digging up the ground for our garden, we encounter a few cicada nymphs preparing to emerge from the ground.
  • May 12: A few cicadas appear in my yard, both molted and unmolted.
  • May 14-15: An unusually cold weekend halts the emergence of any more cicadas.
  • Week of May 15-21: The cicadas start emerging again, at a rapidly increasing rate, molting and leaving shells all over the place.
  • Week of May 22-28: The cicadas begin singing, and the pervasive hum can be heard daily, usually dying down at night or when it rains.
  • June 4: Cicadas stop emerging from the ground but are now active in the air, flying around our yard and landing on our heads and clothes at every opportunity.

  • Week of June 5-11: Little branches from our trees are lying in our yard, cut down by the cicadas, with little slits cut in the branches for eggs as part of the cicadas’ ovipositing process.

    As the week goes on, increasingly most cicadas can be heard high up in the trees but are hard to see. Of the few cicadas to be found near the ground, most are dead or disfigured. I do find one spot, at the intersection of Vine and Walnut within the city limits of Logan, where cicadas rest on branches and swarm around trees low to the ground and close to the road; this is a good place to observe them.

  • Week of June 12-18: Despite the warm weather, the cicadas are becoming noticeably quieter. On June 16, a little over a month since the first one emerged, I saw the last living cicada in my yard.
  • Week of June 19-25: I can no longer hear the roar of cicadas from my yard. At first I could hear some individuals in the distance. June 20 was the first day I did not hear a cicada at all.

 

The bugs are not ubiquitous. Many places I’ve looked, including most public parks and areas near the Hocking River, have no cicadas at all. The public places where I have found cicadas are:

See the links below for more content about this emergence and periodical cicadas in general.

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