Where are they? It’s mid-July and I have heard only one cicada – just one – on July 10th. By now they should have been “singing” for more than a week in western Pennsylvania, but they’re noticeably absent.
The crickets are silent too. What’s going on?
Is this an unusually “bug-less” year or is this absence only happening in my neighborhood?
Let me know if you’ve noticed it too.
(photo of cicada on swamp thistle by Chuck Tague)
I have only heard one cicada too, last week. Strange.
I live in western NY and I too have not heard cicadas nor crickets this summer.
Perhaps because the weather has been so cool this July?
Don’t they seem to sing when the air is warm and sun is shining?
I’ve heard them on and off around here. I spotted the discarded skin of one last week too.
From our Squirrel Hill dining room, we heard two cicadas at dusk on July 22. I keep wondering when they’ll crank up their chorus.
It has been an unusually late year for bugs – we had a mayfly hatch (hundreds or thousands of bugs) on the Allegheny River just upstream of Lock #2 on July 12. So I expect that the cicadas will be late too.
It also feels like it has been a very cool summer, which may account for it.
I live in Lawrenceville (pgh) and we heard one a few weeks back and crickets. But with this cooler weather – they seem to have disapeered. Perhaps when the heat comes back?
I live near Frick Park and have not heard any either. The fireflys seem not as numerous either. I have seen several Junebug moltings.
So six hours after posting this, I’ve got a cicada singing in a sycamore outside my window. Mother Nature’s version of Murphy’s Law?
We’ve had lots of fireflies and a HECK of a lot of mosquitoes! Also have seen one or two Japanese beetles but not as many as in past years. I tend to think Daniel is right in terms of late bug activity, just based on my observations. Anne Curtis
I’ve noticed it also …. and hardly any butterflies or fireflies. Very very weird. Any way to find out if the strange weather has had any influence on this?
I had observed the same and commented to my family. Around July 10 I found one on my sidewalk that was partially “hatched” but appeared to be stuck in the process. It was dead and I wondered if the late hatch was because of defective nymphs. There are a few cicadas that have been singing the past 2 days. Doesn’t seem like as many as in the past.
I too heard some cicadas Fri night only 12 hours after posting that I hadn’t hear any. There were not a lot of them so I am waiting to see what happens tonight. And still no crickets. Hmmm.
Heard them last night walking home from Arsenal Park in Lawrenceville – but not very many.
I’m a fan of old B 50s monster films. It was always a dire warning when you couldn’t hear the crickets or birds or see insects. So mmmmm!!!! It is amusing tho. WE all complain when there are too many bugs on the trails when we walk but when they aren’t there we worry. Good stewards of the land we are we hope. Faith C.
Southern Lancaster County. Still waiting for cicadas, crickets and Japanese beetles scarce, number of butterflies has greatly increased in the last week.
I’ve been regularly hearing crickets for about a month here in Bloomfield (listening to one right now), but no cicadas yet.
I have seen far fewer Japanese beetles this year than last year as well as fewer fireflies and have not yet heard a cicada this year. I also noticed a marked decline in spring peeper singing this past spring.
I live in Brentwood in the South Hills and I have seen a few fireflies, not many and have what seems like two crickets singing in my front yard. My butterfly bush is not as busy as it was two summers ago. A few Swallowtails, a Monarch, skip jacks. My big surprise this year has been Honey Bees! I don’t know where their hive is, but they are all over my flower garden. I haven’t seen them for years.
I heard a cicada one day this past week as I went out to get the mail. It sounded as if it were in distress, and when I tracked it down, I found out why: it was in the clutches of a cicada killer wasp. By then, the victim had fallen silent, and the wasp had started dragging it back to its burrow, which was hidden in the ivy.
the thing with cicadas is they spend up to four years underground as larvae. about every four years there will be a large hatch of these animals and the population fluctuates as the overlapping generation appear. some generations are larger than others