After surviving cicadas, mites and earwigs, what insects could generate buzz in 2025?

Besides enduring weeks of the 17-year cicada brood cacophony in 2024, we also dealt with the itch mite invasion that followed, an overabundance of earwigs in late spring and Asian lady beetle hordes in the fall.

So what insects are going to bug us in 2025?

“I don’t know that we’ll be able to follow-up the excitement of the 17-year cicada cycle,” admitted Jennifer Rydzewski, an ecologist at the DuPage County Forest Preserve District. “It really depends on the seasonality of things.”

If we have another mild winter like last year, expect more ticks in the spring, Rydzewski warned. But as for postulating which insect emergence might make headlines this year, that’s anyone’s guess.

“It’s hard to predict from year to year because there are so many variables,” said Chris Dietrich, the state’s chief entomologist and a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Dietrich said invasive species could be the next big thing for Illinois insect aficionados.

“The corn leafhopper we’re starting to see more and more of,” he said. “Because of warming temperatures, they are able to make it farther north each year into areas they’ve never been.”

Dietrich said the problem with the corn leafhopper is twofold: Not only do they devour corn, they spread disease to the stalks as well.

“We saw a particular bacteria they spread in Missouri for the first time,” he said.

Rydzewski also warned of migrant insects, particularly from Asia.

“Now that it’s easier to ship things from all over the place, that includes insects tagging along for the ride,” she said.

Asian longhorned ticks have been sighted in Illinois, as well as the wasp-like elm zigzag sawfly.

The spotted lanternfly remains a potential threat since entomologists began warning about them in 2023, but we haven’t seen the swarms in Illinois that other states have reported.

And if you’re missing the cicada noise, another large brood is emerging in neighboring Kentucky this spring, Dietrich points out.

Meanwhile, insect experts note most bugs in Illinois are supposed to be here. And as long as they’re not posing a specific threat to someone, they should be left alone to do their thing.

“I know they’re kind of creepy crawly but most of them are harmless,” Rydzewski said. “Most insects that are native to this area have really important roles in our ecosystems in making nature healthy and our habitats healthy.”

Dietrich said many homeowners and even business operators have become savvy about landscaping to help various insect populations, particularly pollinators like bees and butterflies.

“Every little bit helps,” he said.

Reducing pesticides and other chemicals also helps maintain a better balanced ecological system, Rydzewski said.

“So we’re not getting rid of the insects we do want around,” she explained.

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources lists several endangered and threatened insect species that are native to Illinois. The endangered list includes the common striped scorpion, the rusty patched bumble bee, two types of dragonflies, two varieties of stoneflies and five butterflies or moths.

The rusty patched bumble bee, the Hine’s emerald dragonfly and the Karner blue butterfly are also on the federal government’s endangered animal list.