Cicadas Prepare to Swarm East Coast Reminds National Pest Management Association; Billions of Bugs to Emerge After 17-Year Absence.

News Editors/Environment Writers

DUNN LORING, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 2, 2004

Easterners in 10 states and the District of Columbia should expect a "buggy" season this spring with the coming of the 17-year cicadas. Often confused with locusts, these periodical cicadas are large insects that emerge after spending 17 years underground.

"We are expecting a huge cicada season," says National Pest Management Association Technical Director Greg Baumann. "The species that is arriving this year is known as the 'big brood.' Some areas will experience up to 1.5 million cicadas per acre."

Easily identified by their striking black bodies, red eyes, and red wing veins, cicadas will be crawling out of the ground and shedding their skin in early May. This particular brood will emerge in Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia and parts of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia.

A cicada's odd life cycle is its innate defense mechanism. When they emerge, they do so in such enormous numbers there are simply too many of them to be wiped out by their natural predators. Scientists call this "predatory satiation." Their predators become tired of eating them - too full to continue to prey on other cicadas, allowing some of the insects to breed.

"Cicadas pose absolutely no threat to humans or animals. They are truly a nuisance pest and will do nothing more than startle a homeowner with their strange appearance and loud singing," commented Baumann. "These pests are natural oddities - homeowners should be more concerned with true health- and property-threatening pests, such as termites, ticks, mosquitoes, rodents, ants and cockroaches, rather than worrying about cicadas."

The NPMA, a non-profit organization with more than 5,000 members, was established in 1933 to support the pest management industry's commitment to the protection of public health, food and property, reflected both in the continuing education of the pest control professional and the dissemination of timely information to homeowners and businesses.

For further information on cicadas or health- and property-threatening pests such as termites, carpenter ants, mosquitoes, ticks, cockroaches, stinging insects and rodents, visit pestworld.org.