NORTH VERNON — While the strange insects were nowhere to be found on the grounds, the Brood X cicada was a frequent topic of conversation among fairgoers this past week in Jennings County.
Millions of cicadas have swarmed across Indiana and 15 other states and Washington D.C. in recent weeks.
Throughout fair week, volunteer Bob Steiner was available in the newly-renovated Conservation Building to answer questions about the bugs with prehistoric roots.
A retired conservationist and director of the Jennings County Soil and Water Conservation District, Steiner said he had discovered a large swarm of cicadas on his own Jennings County property, so he decided to make a photographic study of the insects. His photograph of two of the large red-eyed cicadas placed first in the fair’s photography competition.
Current JCSWCD Conservationist Jenny Vogel and Executive Director Andy Ertel also provided information about the insects.
Though the bugs are often erroneously called the 17-year locusts, they are not locusts. They are a species of cicada that live underground for 17 years and then emerge from the ground to mate and reproduce. The bugs live above ground for four to six weeks and are 1 1/2 to 2 inches in length with wings.
Vogel said that while many millions of the invading cicadas have emerged in Indiana, “the bugs are no threat to people or pets. They do not bite or sting. They make a lot of noise and can create a bit of mess where they swarm but they are not a threat.”
He said that Brood X cicadas are most attracted to oak, apple, hickory and dogwood trees.
“They are not a threat to the environment either,” said Ertel, who has led a statewide effort to preserve a healthy environment to aide pollinators.
Ertel explained even a very large swarm of cicadas will not permanently damage adult trees. Cicadas may sometimes cause temporary damage to tree saplings but, in most cases, the damage will repair naturally within a few weeks and plants shouldn’t be impacted at all, he said.
Norma Rowe began her life at the same time of the 1936 cicada emergence.
A member of the Home Extension Club, and a volunteer assisting in the Fair Home Building, Rowe said, “Of course I didn’t know anything about it when I was just born, but I have marked the coming of the cicada every time since.”
There have been five additional times the cicada has appeared in Indiana since Rowe was born 85 years ago.
Each time the mysterious insects appeared, Rowe also marked a different phase of her own life.
“Not all the years were the same. I remember sometimes there were so many cicadas you had to get a broom and sweep them away from the porch before you could even go through your own door,” Rowe said.
Compared to other years, Rowe said this year’s cicadas aren’t quite as loud as before.
While Indiana does have among the highest amounts of cicada, so far, not all parts of the state have seen the same turnout. The largest swarms have made themselves known in the counties closest to the Ohio River.
As she waited to chaperone her daughter, fair queen Mariah Grider, Gennie Grider said she could attest to the amount of cicadas along the river.
“We were playing golf at the Sunrise Golf Club in Madison and I just could not believe how many cicada there were,” Gennie said. “I’ve never seen anything like it. They were like a brown carpet on the grass and they covered the trees and the noise was so loud I could not think.”
The “cicada song” is made by the male to attract females. The sound often reaches 90 decibels.
Quiet will return to the forests of Indiana in two to three weeks when the adult cicadas perish and the newborns burrow into the earth — where they will remain for the next 17 years.
