Posted by Helen on: 06.21.2007 /
Last Saturday we went to Cantigny Park for the annual art fair. I was curious to see if they had any or many cicadas.
As we drove west to get to the park, we went through some areas where we could hear cicadas (with the car windows closed) and see them flying across the expressway.
There was a table at Cantigny with information for children about cicadas. I asked a man helping there (who was from the University of Illinois) why Oak Park doesn’t have cicadas but River Forest does. He said it was because Oak Park had so many elm trees and every time a tree dies the cicadas living on its roots die. River Forest was planted with more variety of trees (before these areas were settled they were prairie, I believe - people added the trees) and so the cicada population was not hit so hard there. I also wonder if it’s because it’s right next to the river, where the trees are not disturbed.
He said Cantigny had some cicadas but there were more in the surrounding suburbs. I thought I heard lots high up in their huge trees as we walked through the park, but Steve said all insects sound like that. Ben at first agreed with Steve but lately has said he thinks that what we heard was specifically cicadas. We hardly saw any flying at Cantigny.
The man from the University of Illinois also said that strong winds a week earlier (now two weeks ago) had moved the cicadas North and West. Which means they will lay eggs there and show up in new places in 17 years. That explained why I had been seeing them closer to our house lately. A week ago I saw the first one on our street and now we’re hearing some of them around our house during the day and seeing a few flying around or on the paths near us. I think they were moved rather than emerged here since I’ve not seen one young (white) one here or holes in the ground around trees or shells near or on trees.
I’ve been to two local shopping malls this week with my children and both had cicadas. They are harmless but annoying: they are quite big and, being inept flyers, tend to fly into us or fall on us. My children jumped every so often as one came particularly close and Ben commented “Now I know why people in River Forest were making a big deal about the cicadas!”
One store assistant commented that the cicadas only showed up there about a week earlier - brought by the winds I assume.
I’m thinking their month (they’re out for about a month) must be up soon. It’s been interesting. I’m glad they’ve been near enough to see but not in huge numbers right where we live!