Scientist asks Illinois residents to help track cicada swarm

MAKANDA - A researcher from the University of Connecticut is asking southern Illinois residents to help document the 13-year swarm of cicadas that's expected to hit later this month.

John Cooley, who runs the Magic Cicada website, plans to come to the region to track the insects' movements. He wants residents to crowd-source their cicada sightings and observations on his website.

"It's very common for them to be confused with grasshoppers and crickets," Cooley said. "They are very large aphids, but they don't look that much like them."

The emergence will take about a month, and then adult cicadas will begin singing to attract mates and flying around about a week or 10 days later, he told the Southern Illinoisan.

"This is one of the natural phenomena that is kind of unique," Cooley said. "People are scared to death of them, but they are really not interested in people. They're looking for a mate and a place to lay eggs and that's it."

Adults can live up to four weeks, dying after the female lays its eggs in tree bark, he said. After the eggs hatch, he said the young cicada burrows into the soil until it emerges in another 13 years.

Cicadas are attracted to shrubs and smaller trees, especially those bearing fruit. People can cover plants with something like cheesecloth to prevent them from being damaged by the insects' eggs.

At Rendleman Orchards in Alto Pass, owner Ren Sirles plans to place 50-pound onion and cabbage bags over smaller trees, and use insecticide or pesticide on trees when cicadas nest heaviest.

Although Sirles hasn't seen cicadas kill any trees on his family's 143-year-old farm, he said the insects will set their growth cycle back. But damage done by cicadas won't be evident until the following year and the subsequent year's crop, Sirles said.