Cincinnati beware — cicadas pee. And they have 'stronger streams than many mammals'

Yahoo

28-05-2025

Millions if not billions of 17-year cicadas have descended on Greater Cincinnati and Southwest Ohio, creating a deafening noise and leaving behind a real mess in their wake.
But that mess is not just the nymph shells they leave behind when they emerge from underground. No, cicadas pee, and unlike most insects, they pee a lot.
"[C]icadas are able to pee well above their weight class and produce stronger streams than many mammals," writes Scientific American, reporting on a March 2024 paper published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA.
Now people bothered by the insects have another reason to be disgusted by them. Here's what to know.
According to Scientific American, cicadas feed on the fluid in a plant's xylem system. Because that fluid is 95% water, cicadas must consume 300 times their body weight each day to get enough nutrients. And that means they pee a lot.
While most insects flick away liquid waste one drop at a time, cicadas pee "in high-speed streams reminiscent of the bathroom habits of mammals," according to the publication.
In fact, cicadas can produce stronger streams than some species of small mammals, per Scientific American, including bats and a breed of rodent known as the Wistar rat.
Yes. After 17 years underground, Brood XIV is emerging, and it will bring millions if not billions of the noisy insects to Southwest Ohio and a dozen other states this spring.
Brood XIV is one of 15 recognized broods of periodical cicadas that emerge every 13 or 17 years, and one of four that appear in the Buckeye State, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. They emerge when the soil temperature reaches 64 degrees, which typically happens in the second half of May.
Annual cicadas emerge worldwide each year, but periodical cicadas are found only in eastern North America. They live underground as nymphs for either 13 or 17 years before emerging above ground in massive numbers. Different populations of periodical cicadas are called 'broods' and are numbered with Roman numerals.
They are active for three to four weeks as they focus on mating and reproduction, per ODNR. Male periodical cicadas produce a deafening chorus of calls to attract females. Once mated, female cicadas deposit their eggs into the branches of trees and shrubs.
Brood XIV cicadas will stretch from northern Georgia to Massachusetts. In Ohio, they will emerge in more than a dozen counties, per ODNR, mostly in Southwest Ohio:
Adams
Brown
Butler
Champaign
Clermont
Clinton
Gallia
Greene
Hamilton
Highland
Jackson
Lawrence
Pike
Ross
Scioto
Warren
Washington
Some of the edge counties will not see as heavy an emergence as others.
The cicadas that emerge every 13 or 17 years are different from the ones seen every summer, and it's not just the amount of time between sightings.
Dr. Gene Kritsky with Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati and founder of Cicada Safari, a group that tracks the emergence of cicadas based on user submissions, told WKRN in Nashville that periodical cicadas emerge in May or June, while annual cicadas show up later, in late June and July, and through the rest of summer.
While swarms of noisy insects may be unsettling for some, cicadas are harmless to people and pets, according to ODNR. They are also a valuable food source for native wildlife, including birds, mammals and fish.
Egg-laying by female cicadas can cause 'flagging' on trees and shrubs (death of branch tips, from the egg-laying site to the end of the branch), but there is little to no impact on established, otherwise healthy plants, ODNR states.
Small or newly planted trees and shrubs are more vulnerable to damage and can be protected by covering them with fine netting for the few weeks that adult cicadas are active. Using pesticides on cicadas is not warranted or recommended.
States expecting cicadas this year include Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia, Gene Kritsky, founder of Cicada Safari, a group that crowdsources and reviews data on cicadas, told USA TODAY.
Kentucky and Tennessee probably will get the most cicadas this year, said John Cooley, an ecology and biology associate professor in residence at the University of Connecticut. There will also be large numbers in Georgia, the Carolinas and Pennsylvania, he said.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Do cicadas pee? Way more than most insects. What to know about Ohio brood