Love it or hate it, the soundtrack of summertime in Texas has a backing track of buzzing cicadas.
Sam Kieschnick is an urban wildlife biologist with Texas Parks and Wildlife, who NTX Now has lovingly dubbed "Sam the Bug Man." He loves all things creepy crawly and cicadas are no exception.
He recently joined NTX Now host Ron Corning to explain that cicadas' role in our ecosystem goes beyond making chaotic music.
These interview highlights have been edited for length and clarity. To hear the conversation in full, click the 'listen' button above.
Lifespan of cicadas
Once a female cicada lays her eggs in a tree and they hatch, the hatchlings will crawl into the ground and bury themselves in the soil.
"They will not see light for a year, for multiple years," Kieschnick said. "They live in darkness. Their M.O. is to dig into the ground to find some juice from the plant roots."
While some cicadas live underground for a year, Kieschnick says other species can live in the ground for up to 17 years before they venture back out.
"We don't really have any of those [in Texas]," he said. "There's some maybe in the north part in Oklahoma. We don't really get too many of those, but we have plenty of the annual, one to five year cicadas."
Shedding their skin
Kieschnick says cicadas molt their shells, similar to how a butterfly comes out of a cocoon. The shells can be found all over trees and the ground in the warmer months.
After they come out of their shells, they don't live all that long.
"In this stage, in the adult stage, they typically will live a couple of weeks, not very long," he said.
What purpose do they serve?
Cicadas do more than just provide the musical soundtrack to summer, although to humans, their purpose may seem insignificant.
"They are food, honestly," Kieschnick said. "It's weird to think, 'Oh, I can't wait to be eaten someday,' but that's kind of the purpose of these guys. They are to become nutrients for birds, for other bugs, and for spiders."
He said sometimes cicadas get a bad reputation, being referred to as a "plague," but to Kieschnick, they deserve a lot of appreciation, and he even gave us some advice.
"Even though the adults only live for a couple weeks, they don't do enough either disturbance or damage to the plants to be of any issue," he said. "I'll give you this challenge. Look closer at what you see outside. You may see magnificence in your own backyard. When you change your perspective, when you look a little bit closer, you can see some tremendous beauty."
Ron Corning is a co-host of KERA's NTX Now. Got a tip? Email Ron at rcorning@kera.org.
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