Sigh. It's hard to believe but the periodical cicada emergence of 2014 that we waited 17 long years to see is over. They came, they sang their song, they perpetuated the species (which is all that was expected on them, after all), and now they are gone. Oh, there will be a few stragglers next summer to remind us of what was, but for the most part, those of us living in central Iowa will not see them here again until 2031. Let the countdown begin!!
Several people I have spoken with in the past week say they were mostly gone by the Fourth of July. That was fast! We didn't get quite all of the 6 weeks that we were expecting. Several have made the connection that the cicadas "seemed" to disappear with the recent heavy rain storms. I don't know that there is a connection between rain and cicada death but the decline in numbers was really noticeable over the past week and seemed to "correspond with the previous weekend's rains."
Not all is lost! Now that Brood III is history we can look forward to Brood IV that will be in southwestern Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri next year. Yay! Road Trip!
The map of Brood III periodical cicadas reports from this year is below. There is still time to report your observations at www. Magicicada.org. Please do!
Reported observations of Brood III periodical cicadas.
One last look at the emergence of a Brood III Periodical Cicada in central Iowa, 2014.
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