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CNET
4 days ago
- General
- CNET
I Dread the Ruckus of Those Annoying Cicadas. Here's How I'm Dealing This Year
I was a teenager the first time I remember the cicadas engulfing Maryland. Big, noisy bugs with red eyes that were absolutely everywhere. They were in my grandparents pool, inside my best friend's truck, flying into windows and doors and invading everything with their incessant noise. The biggest problem with cicadas isn't their presence on the trees, it's the skull-throbbing noise they produce non-stop. Their constant buzz can be as loud as a chainsaw. As someone who gets overstimulated by too much noise, it's crucial to reach for a quality pair of noise-cancelling headphones to drown out the cacophonous racket. We're in the thick of cicada season brood XIV (14) now -- from May through at least June, these noisy bugs will climb up from the ground and swarm in a number of eastern states before they mate, die off, and disappear only to emerge again years later. We won't see Brood XIV again, which is appearing this year, until 2037. Cicadas are usually expected to stimulate noise complaints through the beginning and middle of summer, but 2025 has a gigantic The Greater Eastern Brood with billions of these flying insects emerging. Billions! You might be interested to know it's the oldest brood in the US, set to hit 13 states, including Tennessee and Georgia, where they've already been spotted -- or heard. Don't bug spray cicadas. Do this instead (sorry) The red-eyed bugs of Brood XIV, which will soon emerge by the millions. The cicada chasers are immediate reaction to cicadas might be to try and eliminate them from your yard. We don't recommend it. Cicadas are a temporary pest and after a few weeks they'll disappear back underground. They aren't a threat to humans at all and they aren't able to chew their way into the house like termites. Additionally, pesticides don't work well on cicadas. Trying to spray them down won't do any good and could instead damage your yard or local pollinators. The best thing to do is to try to ignore them until they finish their life cycle. The bigger problem for some people is the constant noise that cicadas make while they are above ground. It's a relentless buzz and, once the cicadas arrive, it won't stop until they die off again. If the never-ending noise drives you bonkers, grabbing a quality pair of noise-cancelling headphones can make a major difference to your quality of life -- or at least to mine. Really. Why are cicadas so loud? Here's what's happening: Male cicadas make noise to attract females they can mate with -- the more cicadas in an area, the louder it will be. Noise levels have reached more than 100 decibels in some areas, which means if you plan to spend time in the garden, it's a good idea to snag some earplugs to protect your hearing. Wait, what are cicadas again? Cicadas are also known as "true bugs" and emerge on a 13-year or 17-year cycle. Gene Kritsky/Mount St. Joseph University Cicadas are flying bugs that emerge from the ground periodically to mate and then disappear again. They measure 1 to 1.5 inches long, with wings that stretch twice that length. Their bodies are black, with red-brown eyes and orange veined membranous wings. There are 15 broods of cicadas and each has its own life cycle, generally either 13 or 17 years. Brood XIV, the cicada brood emerging in 2025, is a 17-year brood. That means the last time we saw this particular band of insects was in 2008. How many cicadas are expected in 2025? The 2025 brood is also called the Greater Eastern Brood and it's the second-largest brood of periodic cicadas. They're outdone only by Brood XIX, aka the Great Southern Brood, which emerged in 2024. While there aren't exact numbers on how many cicadas we can expect this year, we do know that Brood XIV is massive. It's also one of the oldest broods in the US. This particular brood was first spotted in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in the 1600s, and it's the brood that spawned all the other 17-year broods. With that in mind, we can estimate that at least several million in certain areas, and possibly over a trillion total cicadas will emerge in 2025. Which states will be affected by cicadas in 2025? Each cicada brood has its own geographical location, which means they don't all appear in the same place. In 2025, there are 13 states that will be affected; Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. Do I need to protect my trees from cicadas? While cicadas aren't harmful to people, that same doesn't go for trees. Female cicadas like to lay their eggs on trees where new leaves are located, which can damage branches and cause withering and snapping. While mature trees should be able to withstand this damage without problems, younger trees can be vulnerable and should be protected. Cicadas are a nuisance but they're here for a good time ... not a long you're worried about cicada damage, you have a few options. You can wrap tree trunks and areas where twigs meet branches with cheesecloth, tape and even use landscaping nets around smaller trees. A CNET guide from 2021 explains more about how you can protect trees from cicada damage. When do cicadas appear, and how long do they stick around? While cicadas are a serious pest when they arrive, they don't last long. They'll mostly emerge in May and then stick around for 5 to 6 weeks before they die off. By mid-summer, just in time for the Fourth of July, the cicadas should be gone or at least on their way back underground for another 17 years. Cicadas emerge when the soil 8 inches below ground reaches 64 degrees Fahrenheit. Above-ground temperatures will need to reach the 70- to 80-degree range before the soil will warm up enough, although a warm rain can warm the ground faster. There already have been sightings in Tennessee this year but most of the brood probably won't arrive for a few more weeks. Can you eat cicadas? Cicadas can be eaten but there are things you should know before cooking them. Dan Mogzai The simple answer is, yes. Cicadas can be eaten and people have been doing it for centuries. Native American populations, like the Onondaga Nation, have long viewed the flying insect as a valuable food source. However, eating cicadas does come with risks. Cicadas are related to shrimp and lobster, which means eating them is not recommended if you have a seafood allergy. Cicadas aren't dangerous to pets either, which means if your dog snacks on cicadas it should be fine. Cicadas and climate change For centuries, cicadas have slept underground, emerging only once every 13 to 17 years to mate before disappearing again. While plenty of research has been done on these flying insects, cicadas react to the temperature around them and emerge on a schedule that is triggered by the warmth of the ground. As the planet continues to heat up, the timing of cicadas has started to change. We may soon see a significant change in the life cycle of cicadas. As the temperatures rise, 17-year cicadas could become 13-year cicadas, changing the timeline on when we will see them. While cicadas might be inclined to move further north, it's not an easy process. They can only migrate during their above-ground cycle of life. Because they only emerge for a few weeks at a time and aren't prone to flying long distances, any shift in their geographical locations would occur slowly during their emergences. How you can help cicada researchers Snap a photo and help researchers learn more about cicadas. Video screenshot by Bonnie Burton/CNET Researchers spend time with each brood when it emerges to study its life cycle and track when and where they emerge. However, scientists don't have the time or resources to be everywhere that cicadas appear. That's where regular folks come in. Cicada Safari is a free app for Android and iOS that lets you take photos of cicadas and upload them to the app. Using geolocation on those uploaded images, scientists can track a larger number of cicadas. Your photos of these flying bugs in your backyard can help scientists to understand them better, filling in holes in their research.
E&E News
5 days ago
- Business
- E&E News
Storms, AI demand and policy failures are upending US grid
Ensuring the nation's power grids can reliably deliver electricity is clashing with the tech industry's voracious appetite for energy — pushing the risks of power outages to new highs, executives of regional power markets told federal regulators Wednesday. Grid rules developed during periods of relatively slow growth aren't equipped for the demands of Silicon Valley's investment in artificial intelligence, extreme weather shocks, and deep national and state political divisions over energy and climate policy, grid operators told members of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. 'AI is going to change our world,' said Manu Asthana, CEO of the PJM Interconnection, grid operator for 67 million customers in all or parts of 13 Eastern states and the District of Columbia. Advertisement 'In our forecast between 2024 and 2030, currently we have a 32-gigawatt increase in demand, of which 30 is from data centers,' Asthana said. 'We need to stabilize market rules and find that intersection between reliability and affordability that works both for consumers and suppliers, and that intersection is getting harder and harder to find.' Lanny Nickell, CEO of the Southwest Power Pool, PJM's counterpart in a band of Great Plains states, said extreme weather threats and the increasing role of weather-dependent wind and solar power put outages at 125 times more likely to happen than eight years ago. 'As if this wasn't challenging enough,' he said, 'we are now projecting our peak demand to be as much as 75 percent higher 10 years from now, and that's largely driven by electrification and data center growth.' Jim Robb, CEO of the North American Electric Reliability Corp., the architect of transmission grid standards, said grid operators need 'much deeper insight' into future electricity supply and demand and the probabilities of extreme storms and heat waves that could push power demand to new peaks. Limited real-time information about the effect that dangerous storms have on gas pipeline deliveries to electric turbines is also an area of concern that has been left unresolved by the broader energy industry. Current industry risk analysis cannot do the job, Robb said in comments filed for a two-day conference at FERC's Washington headquarters. 'This will require stronger modeling of fuel and capacity performance to assess reliability risk,' Robb said. The industry needs to establish an agreed-upon profile of the likely risks operators face, like the 'design basis' accident scenarios that nuclear power plant operators are required to defend against. Susan Bruce, counsel to a group of industrial power customers, said her coalition shares 'serious concerns' about regional grid reliability and the ability to add enough new electric generation to keep pace with demand, particularly from 'unprecedented but undefined' growth of data center and cryptocurrency mining operations. 'There is a lack of trust that even very high prices' in grid markets 'can move the needle' to get new nonrenewable generation in service, she said in remarks filed with the commission. 'New rules of the road are necessary,' she said. 'States leaning on other states' Sharp divisions at national and state levels over climate policies is apparent inside PJM, said FERC Chair Mark Christie. Christie told PJM's Asthana, 'You've got 13 states plus the District, you've got widely divergent policies from New Jersey to West Virginia, from Indiana to Maryland. 'It puts you in an impossible position,' Christie continued. 'How can you guys balance these incredibly divergent political goals and try to run a market … that fits the economic textbooks?' One answer, broached by Christie and several state regulators at the conference, was to push more responsibility on states to meet grid reliability challenges. Panelists at the FERC conference debated whether electricity reliability and affordability would be helped if states ordered utilities to purchase part of the generation they expect to need in the future, rather than relying on PJM's competitive energy markets to deliver supply. 'How do we make it work without the states having a much larger role?' Christie asked. 'We acknowledge that the states need a role because we are responsible for resource adequacy,' said Jacob Finkel, deputy secretary for policy for Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D), who has led a challenge to PJM policies by Democratic governors in its region. 'We have a responsibility to our ratepayers for affordability.' 'It's easy to throw darts at PJM,' said Kelsey Bagot, a member of the Virginia State Corp. Commission. 'To the extent we want a larger role in the process, we have to demonstrate that as a group of states with very different regulatory structures and very different goals and policies, that we can actually function as a collaborative body and make decisions. 'I think that challenge has been handed to us,' Bagot said. Dennis Deters, a member of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, sided with Bagot, a fellow red-state regulator. 'We are reactive,' he said. 'Too many states are relying on [PJM] to provide resource adequacy. 'I do shudder to think of injecting more politics into an engineering effort,' he added. Michael Richard, a member of the Maryland Public Service Commission, said the divisions were over principle rather than politics. 'You know, Maryland policymakers, we believe the science on climate change.' Christie several times pressed panelists for opinions on whether states should be held accountable if their utilities aren't building enough generation to meet reliability needs, which, in his calculation, means generation that can operate around the clock, not renewables. 'If you don't build enough, maybe you need to pay a penalty. Clearly, there are states leaning on other states,' he said. 'The states have the ability to do a lot of direct contracting and direct support for their policies,' PJM's Asthana said. 'We have seen the state of New Jersey, for example, directly support offshore wind. We have supported them in that pursuit, and that can work.' Gordon van Welie, president of ISO New England, said that states can lose control. 'We know from experience that it's very hard building fossil resources in New England,' he said. A key part of the region's answer was investment in offshore wind. Now the Trump administration has thrown up barriers to that option, he added. 'So that puts us in a very difficult place as we enter 2030,' he said. 'Something's got to give in that equation. Otherwise we have trouble.'
Yahoo
16-02-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Gigi Sullivan becomes first girl to win Section 9 large-school boys wrestling championship
Gigi Sullivan made history on Saturday as the first female wrestler to claim a large-school Section 9 title. 'It was definitely harder (than expected),'' said Sullivan, the top seed at 101 pounds in the Division I meet at Monroe-Woodbury, 'because you can't mess up … like you're the first seed and you can't lose and that brings more pressure but I still got it done so it was good.'' Sullivan, 14 and an eighth grader, breezed through her quarterfinal and semifinal wins, setting up a finals confrontation with No. 2 seed Evan Gomez, an eighth grader from Valley Central. Sullivan (28-3 headed into sections) had a little size advantage on Gomez (28-4). The match remained tight throughout with Sullivan prevailing 3-2. More: Wrestling: Top seeds beat No. 2 in every sectional Division I final 'When I was on top and it was getting close, I just knew to stay calm and keep wrestling through for the rest of the match,'' she said. 'The last 30 seconds I was trying to get out. I was actually very happy,'' when it was over. Even in victory, Sullivan was critical of her own performance before coach John Gartiser told her everything was alright because she had won. 'I would have obviously liked it to be better but it can't always be that way,'' she said. 'I won and that's all that matters.'' Sullivan was fully aware of the historic nature of her accomplishment – Charlie Wylie of Port Jervis won a small-school Division II sectional title last year. 'It does mean a lot because I have been wanting to do this,'' she said. More: Section 9 boys wrestling scores, schedule for the 2024-25 season More: Mid-Hudson wrestlers claim seven gold medals at Eastern States wrestling meet Like all the other Section 9 qualifiers, Sullivan will head to states, hopeful of a solid performance. MVP Arena in Albany will host on Feb. 28-March 1. 2024 SECTIONALS: Here are the seeds, final results for the Section 9 Division I wrestling tournament. 'I definitely want to place,'' she said. 'There's nothing to lose up there. I've got to wrestle my best.'' kmcmillan@ X / Twitter: @KenMcMillanTHR This article originally appeared on Times Herald-Record: Gigi Sullivan wins Section 9 101 pound wrestling title
