Overall, the cicadas were an afterthought on the pages of District newspapers, because as the cicadas emerged from underground, so too did the nation’s coal miners, refusing to return to their work. The Evening Star wrote, “Stories are told everywhere of broods which ate the lumber on houses and barns ‘until they looked like boards fresh from the mill,’ of crops devastated in a few hours, and of numerous children who died instantly from the poison of ‘locust stings.’" Needless to say, the cicadas are not locusts, and they pose no threat to your children or your barns. Įntomologists had to assure the public that the cicadas are in fact harmless, as they still do today although, back then, they dealt with much more absurd and unsubstantiated superstitions.
“The popular judgement is that the seventeen-year locust is a dreadful pest and ought to be destroyed,” the Washington Evening Star reported.
The public sentiment toward the creatures in this period is remarkably similar to that of a century later. To honor our temporal visitors, here is a look back at how the District and the world have changed over the past several generations of cicadas.īrood X arrived in the 20th Century right on schedule in 1902. Now, upon waking up, the cicadas will witness major technological advancements their arrival will coincide with the first Democratic president since they appeared during the FDR administration they’ll be able to attend a Major League Baseball game in the District for the first time since 1970 and, oh yeah, all of the humans will be wearing face masks.Īs novel as the cicada experience may seem to us humans, the most interesting aspect of their visit is the story it tells about the passage of time: how much changes in 17 years and how much doesn’t change at all. When these bugs were last awake and above ground in 2004, flip phones were cutting edge technology, Shrek 2 was in theaters, and gas was less than $2 per gallon. Our reaction to the visitors may not change each cycle, but the world around us does. Entomologists assure the public that the bugs are harmless many people are perturbed by the pests and some inexplicably always ponder what’s the best way to eat them. These cicadas will die off, leaving behind their offspring to continue the survival-oriented legacy of their ancestral pests: burrow, sleep, awaken, breed, die.Īlthough a scourge of locusts may seem especially fitting after a year of global disease and political unrest, just another sign of the end times, these cicadas are simply taking their place in a long lineage of teeny time travelers.ĭating back decades, the cicada news stories are virtually the same each cycle.
These tiny visitors will partake in a weeks-long summer festival of breeding, drowning out the usual babbling of lawmakers with a constant din of mating calls. The swarm, called Brood X, will arise from their shallow, underground dwellings by the billions after 17 years of hibernating. The District is once again abuzz with the news of the upcoming cicada swarm that is set to descend upon the region in the coming weeks. Illustration of the Periodical Cicada, from The American Entomologist ca.
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