2024 Was a Magical Year
Cicadas depend on healthy deciduous trees for food and safe places to lay eggs. It's no wonder the preserves are cicada hotspots. In May 2024, millions of 17-year periodical cicadas tunneled out of the soil across northern Illinois to mate and complete their life cycle.
Curiosity about these intriguing insects soon buzzed in from thousands of miles away. Regional media as well as British, German and Japanese outlets dispatched crews to film in Lake County. Our cicada communications reached 216 million people worldwide.
Across 127 public and school programs, our educators taught 4,788 participants about cicadas. The Dunn Museum's Celebrating Cicadas exhibition drew 5,442 visitors.
Periodical cicadas will appear in Lake County again in 2041.
Mapping Magicicada
The public helped track the 2024 periodical cicada emergence by reporting cicada observations in the forest preserves, local yards and neighborhoods. This data populated the time-lapse map below. From April–June, the map received 3,451 submissions and revealed that southeastern Lake County was a thriving cicada hotspot.
17 Years, 64 Degrees, 100 Decibels
Want to learn even more about the periodical cicada emergence? Read the spring 2024 issue of our award-winning Horizons quarterly magazine.
Cicada Life Cycle
The Indiana Jones of Cicadas
On May 16, 2024, Dr. Gene Kritsky from Mount St. Joseph University, one of the world's foremost authorities on cicadas, presented a virtual program called Celebrating Cicadas. Known as "the Indiana Jones of cicadas," Kritsky discussed the amazing life cycle and survival strategies of cicadas, and human interactions with these mysterious animals over time.
Onwards and Upwards
Periodical cicadas need to complete a final molt to enter adulthood. After emerging from the ground, they clamber up trees and other vertical surfaces. As if divers extracting themselves from wetsuits, they split open their exoskeletons once more and “pull themselves out, eventually hanging almost totally upside-down.”
In this teneral, or soft, phase, their squishy bodies are opaque white and yellow. Over about 90 minutes, their bodies harden and darken.
Footage © Dr. Gene Kritsky, Mount St. Joseph University
The Next Generation
Female cicadas use their ovipositor, or egg tube, to make shallow, V-shaped grooves along the tips of tree branches. They lay about 20 eggs into each groove, and 400–600 eggs total. Mature trees in full sunshine surrounded by low vegetation are ideal.
Footage © Dr. Gene Kritsky, Mount St. Joseph University
Synchronized Singing
During daytime, chorusing centers of male cicadas sing using abdominal organs called tymbals. Tymbals expand and contract like bendy straws, producing clicks that swell into songs. The male’s abdomen amplifies his calls to 90–100 decibels, as loud as a motorcycle.
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Learning each species’ distinctive song is the best identification method. |
Linnaeus’
17-year Cicada
Produces a droning call that sounds like someone saying, “Pharoah,” with the first syllable extended: “Phaaaaaaaaaroah.” Some observers say it sounds more like, “wheeeeee-ooo.”
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Cassin’s
Periodical Cicada
Makes “a quick burst of sound, followed by some rapid clicks,” according to CicadaMania.com.
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Decula
Periodical Cicada
Produces a call with a tick, tick, tick rhythm that ends in less buzzy S-sounds, called lisps.
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To advance to the next track, click on the double arrows to the right of the play button.
Audio © SongsofInsects.com
Listen to a Buzzy Podcast Episode
Want to hear more about cicadas during your commute or workout? In a special-edition episode of our award-winning Words of the Woods podcast, host Brett Pető discusses the natural history, life cycle and buzzy sounds of periodical cicadas. Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you prefer.
Artistry and Entomology
To help celebrate the emergence, we commissioned Samantha Gallagher, a Lake County-based artist, to create 11 cicada illustrations. Watch her creative process for two of them here. Design your own masterpieces by downloading our cicada coloring pages below.
Coloring Pages
Footage © Samantha Gallagher
Search for Cicadas
Ready to experience the cicada emergence in your forest preserves? Know what to look for with our scavenger hunt sheet. Twelve aspects of the emergence for you to find are featured, from cicadas molting their exoskeletons to rare cicadas with blue or white eyes (instead of red eyes). Try to find all 12!
Cicada Scavenger Hunt Sheet
Cicada Contest Winner Announced
📣 We have a winner for our Cicada Contest! 🏆
Mia Gaiser, 15, discovered a rare, blue-eyed periodical cicada at Old School Forest Preserve in Mettawa on June 6. This qualified Mia to win our Cicada Contest prize basket worth $150! 🎁
• Cicada art prints
• Cicadapocalypse graphic novel
• Enamel pin
• Cicada stickers
• Four Dunn Museum FREE admission passes
As of June 12, the Cicada Contest is now over. Congratulations, Mia! 🥳