Cicada Facts: Broods, Sounds, Nymphs, and Adult Life
If you are searching for five facts about cicadas, the short version is that these insects are loud, long-lived underground as nymphs, and famous for mass emergences that can blanket whole neighborhoods. Once you learn what to look for, cicadas stop seeming mysterious and start looking like one of nature’s most impressive life cycle stories. They are also harmless to people, important to ecosystems, and easier to identify than many other buzzing insects.
What Cicadas Are and How to पहचान them
Body shape and field marks
Cicadas are stout, broad-headed insects with clear wings, large eyes, and a blunt body that looks built for power rather than speed. Adult cicadas range from about 1 to 2 inches long, depending on the species. Their wings are held rooflike over the body, and many species have green, black, brown, or orange markings that help with identification.
How cicadas differ from similar insects
People confuse cicadas with grasshoppers and locusts, but cicadas are different insects entirely. Grasshoppers chew leaves and jump with enlarged hind legs, while cicadas feed on plant sap and do not damage plants in the same way. Cicadas also have thick, transparent wings and prominent sound-producing structures, which grasshoppers do not use in the same way.
The Life Cycle of a Cicada
Eggs, nymphs, and adults
Female cicadas lay eggs in slits cut into twigs and small branches. After hatching, the young drop to the ground and burrow into soil, where they live as nymphs and feed on root fluids. This underground stage lasts for years. When they mature, nymphs tunnel upward, shed their skins, and emerge as winged adults.
Why periodical cicadas are so famous
Periodical cicadas are the species people talk about most because they emerge on a strict schedule, either 13 years or 17 years. These broods can appear in huge numbers at once, which is why the search phrase periodical cicadas facts gets so much attention. Their synchronized emergence overwhelms predators and creates one of the most dramatic insect events in North America.
Adult life is short but intense
Adult cicadas live only a few weeks above ground. Their main jobs are to mate, lay eggs, and complete the next generation. They do not eat much as adults, and their energy goes into calling, flying, and reproduction. The loud chorus is not random noise, it is a mating system built for finding other cicadas fast.
Five Facts About Cicadas That Matter Most
1. Cicadas do not sting or bite people
One of the best cicadas facts for kids and adults is simple, cicadas are harmless to people. They do not sting, and they do not chew furniture, crops, or stored food. Their mouthparts are made for piercing plant tissue and drinking sap, not for attacking humans.
2. Their songs can be extremely loud
Male cicadas make sound with special organs called tymbals on the abdomen. The clicks and buzzes combine into a piercing song that can reach very high sound levels close to the insect. The purpose is communication, especially attracting females and spacing males apart during breeding season.
3. Many spend years underground
The nymph stage is the hidden heart of the cicada life cycle. While the adult phase is brief and obvious, the immature stage can last from two to more than a dozen years. That long underground life is one of the coolest facts about cicadas because it explains why their appearances seem to arrive all at once after so much quiet.
4. They emerge in coordinated broods
Periodical cicadas come out in large groups called broods. This synchronized timing is one reason they survive despite being easy prey in the open. Predators cannot eat all of them, so enough adults survive to reproduce and keep the brood going.
5. They are part of healthy ecosystems
Cicadas feed birds, mammals, reptiles, and other insects. Their bodies recycle nutrients back into the soil after they die, and the holes nymphs leave behind can help aerate ground around roots. In other words, cicadas are not garden villains, they are a seasonal pulse of energy in the food web.
Interesting Facts About Cicadas for Kids and Curious Readers
How cicadas make sound without a mouth song
Only male cicadas sing. They use flexible plates on the abdomen to rapidly snap sound-producing membranes, creating a buzzing call that carries far through trees. Different species have different songs, so sound helps with identification. If you hear a loud chorus in summer, that is one of the clearest cicadas bugs interesting facts in action.
What happens when they shed their skins
When a cicada emerges from the ground, it climbs a tree, fence, or wall and splits its nymph skin along the back. The new adult pulls free, hangs still while its wings expand, and then hardens. The empty shell left behind is called an exuvia, and it is one of the easiest signs that cicadas have been nearby.
What they eat and how they feed
Nymphs feed on xylem fluid from plant roots, which is low in nutrients but easy to access underground in huge quantities. Adults feed lightly on sap from twigs and branches. They are not leaf chewers, so they do not eat plants the way many garden pests do. That fact helps gardeners separate real damage from harmless visitation.
Habitat, Behavior, Migration, and Ecological Role
Where cicadas live
Cicadas live in forests, suburbs, parks, orchards, and backyards wherever host trees and suitable soil are available. The nymphs need ground they can burrow into, and the adults need trees or shrubs for calling, mating, and egg laying. In the United States, periodical cicadas are strongly associated with the eastern half of the country.
Do cicadas migrate
Cicadas do not migrate like birds. Their mass appearances are driven by development, not travel. The brood is already underground in the region long before emergence, and the adults simply surface together when their life cycle reaches the right stage. That is why periodical cicadas facts are tied to time and place, not long-distance movement.
How they fit into the food web
Cicadas provide a seasonal feast for birds, squirrels, foxes, bats, and many predators. During a brood year, predators shift their feeding patterns and local populations can briefly surge. Cicadas also support parasitoid insects and decomposers, making them a major ecological event rather than a minor bug sighting.
Culture and mythology
Cicadas appear in art, poetry, and folklore across many cultures because their sound is so memorable and their life cycle is so unusual. In some traditions they symbolize rebirth, persistence, or the passage of time. Their emergence after years underground gives them a place in stories about transformation and patience.
What to Do If Cicadas Are Around Your Home
Protect young trees and shrubs naturally
For gardeners, the main concern is not adults feeding, but females cutting slits into small branches to lay eggs. Use fine insect netting or lightweight row cover over young trees and newly planted fruit trees during a brood emergence. Secure the fabric tightly at the trunk so adults cannot crawl underneath, and remove it after egg-laying season ends.
Reduce egg-laying targets with pruning and placement
Keep young, tender branches out of the highest-risk areas around active brood emergence. If you are planting new trees, choose sturdier specimens and avoid putting them in the middle of the most crowded cicada activity when possible. Older, established trees handle cicada egg-laying far better than thin saplings.
Use simple cleanup methods after emergence
Rake and compost shed skins, or leave them in place if you want to support decomposers. The skins themselves are harmless. If a patio, fence, or walkway is cluttered with exuviae, a broom or hose clears them without any chemicals. This is a natural, low-effort way to manage the aftermath of a brood.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are five facts about cicadas?
Five core facts are that cicadas do not sting people, males make loud mating calls, many species live underground for years as nymphs, periodical cicadas emerge in synchronized broods, and they play an important role in the ecosystem as prey and nutrient recyclers.
Why do cicadas make so much noise?
Male cicadas sing to attract females and establish space between rivals. Their calling is part mating signal and part competition. The sound is produced by specialized abdominal structures, not by rubbing wings together like some other insects.
Are cicadas harmful to gardens?
Adults are not harmful in the usual pest sense, but egg-laying females can damage young twigs on small trees and shrubs. Mature trees handle this well. The safest natural protection is netting young plants during emergence.
What is the difference between annual and periodical cicadas?
Annual cicadas appear every summer, but different generations overlap, so they seem to show up each year. Periodical cicadas stay underground for 13 or 17 years and emerge in massive synchronized broods. That exact timing is what makes periodical cicadas so famous.
How long do cicadas live?
It depends on the species, but the underground nymph stage lasts far longer than the adult stage. Periodical cicadas spend 13 or 17 years below ground, then live as adults for only a few weeks.