Cicadas 2022: How bad will the bugs be this year?
A year ago, cicadas swarmed us by the millions.
That won’t happen for another 17-years; however, some stragglers could show up this year.
News Center Seven’s Kayla McDermott spoke with Don Cipollini, a Professor in Biology at Wright State, and he explained what spotting cicadas this year will be like.
>>Oakwood residents welcome and enjoy the cicadas this season
He said a couple thousand might be around this year across the Miami Valley, but nothing compared to what it was like last year. Noting some cicadas wake up early and some wake up late.
“There’ll be some small number of cicadas cited, but it will be rare, like finding a four-leaf clover. Although it will be kind of fun if you’re able to see one this year,” Cipollini said.
The majority of cicadas will be eaten by birds and other animals.
Cipollini said finding one or two could actually be entertaining.
Some will also die naturally, and when they do, Cipollini said their bodies become great fertilizer.
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“We actually did a study in my lab last year. If you take just standard lawn grass, and you grow it with either no cicada bodies or two, four or six cicada bodies, you just got linear increases in the growth of that grass,” Cipollini said.
