Billions Of Cicadas Could Squirt Pee At People When Insects Emerge In IL

Billions of cicadas will surface this spring across Illinois and several other states, and while the insect is known for its signature mating call, cicadas are also prolific at peeing.

You read that right.

In fact, the bugs hold the record for strongest urine jet stream of any studied animal relative to its size, The New York Times reported this week, citing a new article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Cicadas drink 300 times their weight in the plant sap xylem each day, according to the Times, which noted their urine jets have a velocity reaching up to 3 meters per second, the fastest among animals recently assessed by scientists.

All that urine could be aimed at you.

Mount St. Joseph University behavioral and natural sciences professor Dr. Gene Kritsky told NBC 5 Chicago that cicadas squirt fluid at possible predators such as birds, squirrels, and, yes, humans.

This year the insects will be particularly prominent when two varieties — the 17-year cicadas in Brood XIII or the Northern Illinois Brood and the 13-year cicadas in Brood XIX or the Great Southern Brood — emerge in a rare, synchronized event that hasn’t happened since 1803.

A tiny bit of southeast Iowa will also see both broods.

Brood XIII cicadas appear in Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, and a bit of Michigan as well. Brood XIX cicadas will be found in a much larger area that touches 15 states: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

Cicadas spend most of their lives underground as immature nymphs then emerge to multiply before dying in four to six weeks. They are about an inch long and have a 3-inch wingspan.

The insects should start tunneling toward the surface when soil temperatures reach about 64 degrees. In Illinois, that should be sometime around late May, according to University of Illinois officials.

The Northern Illinois Brood has a reputation for being the largest emergence of cicadas anywhere. According to research by entomologists Monte Lloyd and Henry Dybas at the Field Museum in Chicago, a 1956 brood of Northern Illinois cicadas produced 1.5 million cicadas per acre.

But it's best to leave the billions of bugs alone during their brief time above ground, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. They are generally harmless and pesticides are ineffective at keeping them away.