Brood XIII Cicadas - Homewood, IL
Sightings Category: Cicadas
Brood XIII Cicadas - Homewood, IL
I saw on your website that you recently came to Chicago and I must say I send my heartfelt condolences that you had to drive on the Dan Ryan in Rush Hour!!! Ha! They are doing a HUGE construction project and The City of Chicago has told everyone to avoid it if they can. Anyhoo, the Cicadas are very prominent in Homewood and Flossmoor, Ill. this year. They are south suburbs of Chicago (About 50 miles south of downtown Chicago) One of my close friends' backyard is SWARMING with cicadas. I'm thinking it is because they have lots of old trees and constantly do gardening which keeps the soil nice and soft. I attached some good pictures I took of the cicadas in her backyard. They are so loud and so many that the noise was actually hurting my ears! I couldn't believe it! It was neat to see so many though.
Alison
Date Posted: 2007-06-04 Comments: (1) Show Comments Hide Comments
Comments
Posted By: Masschusetts Cicadas | On: 2010-12-14 | Website:
Hello Allison
First off, my sincerest apologies for the lateness in my response. I am just getting to my email because I was very busy for the month of June. As you know from reading my web site I was in Chicago around the second week of May looking for early emergence signs of the Periodical Cicadas.
Well, I went back in June and was in Illinois for several weeks helping out with distribution mapping of Brood XIII. I had a really excellent time.
You are right about the traffic getting to downtown Chicago it is horrendous. thank you very much for the information about the cicada emergences in Homewood and Flossmoor, IL I will add these data points to my database. Thanks also for the photos. It is good to have a visual record.
It is said that the Periodical Cicada females love to lay their eggs in trees that are on well-cared-for lawns. That is why it seems that they are more abundant in and around the city. Apparently, when the nymphs first hatch, they will attach themselves to the roots of grasses for the first few years of development, then move deeper underground to attached themselves to heartier plants like trees and bushes.
Again, my apologies for not writing back to you until now.