Will Maine Experience “The Summer of The Cicada”?

This summer is supposed to be "the hatch of Magicicada Brood-II", also known as Cicadageddon 2013. You may know what a cicada is - those noisy bugs that buzz & whine in the trees in the summer, especially down south.

Well, every 17 years is special because TRILLIONS of the almond-sized critters hatch all at once and emerge from holes in the ground from North Carolina to Quebec.  Then they climb the trees, while shedding their skin. When they get to where they want to be within the trees the females will lay their eggs.  Then, when the eggs hatch, the newborns will burrow back into the ground and feed off tree roots for the next 17 years.

And these bugs make noise, normally a neat little buzz that would waft across your back yard creating a gentle background noise at night.  But this year, times that buzz by a couple of hundred thousand, and in some parts of the country that will equal a deafening perpetual sound.  It's their mating sound.

Now the females may think that your lawnmower is a male Cicada and there's a chance that they'll swarm you while you're mowing the grass.

The good news is that they don't bite, unlike the black flies that we all know and love.  They're just more or less a nuisance because of the amount of them and the noise that they make. They've been known to completely clog up an air conditioner or two.

Now I don't remember anything really happening in this neck of the woods 17 years ago but I thought I'd prepare you anyway with a little education on the Cicada.