Delaware saw its first real heatwave of the summer last week. But forecasters say the extreme heat will be back and so will the cicadas.
Delaware’s Department of Agriculture (DDA) says it’s almost time for the dog-day cicadas to emerge.
Stacey Hofmann is a spokeswoman for the DDA.
She says August is usually when dog-day cicadas start making their presence known, “And those will be around for the next month. They’re a little bit bigger than the periodical cicadas. And I know, I was just out the other night and heard a few of them chirping.”
Hofmann says as the cicadas start to molt, you may start to see them hanging out on tree branches and leaves and even on sidewalks.
She says the cicadas are not dangerous to humans or pets, "I mean obviously you wouldn’t want your pet sitting there and eating a whole bunch of them - but they are not harmful. Where they are harmful is plant damage. And so they will cut slits into the tree branches and you’ll see em with broken branches.”
Hofmann points out that the male dog-day cicadas have tymbal organs, which vibrate - making a distinct buzzing drone sound it uses for mating.
Hofmann notes that the other kind of cicada - the periodical cicadas - emerge once every 13 to 17 years. The next brood is expected to hatch in Delaware in 2021.
