Is Amarillo About To Get Flooded With Cicadas?

The past few weeks there has been growing talk about Cicadas and let me tell you the coverage has been intense! Headlines like When they are coming, why, and even how to eat them. Supposedly they taste great in chocolate:

Yeah... I'm good... pass. So when are they getting here, and what do we have to look forward to?

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Brood X

Let's start with this year's batch which has the nice sexy name Brood X (ten). This group of cicadas is on a 17 year cycle and sure enough 2021 is their year. There are actually quite a few of these broods that alternate years and a few come quicker, every 13 years. Scientists arent quite sure what triggers them to come out of the ground but when they finally do surface, it's time to get it on! literally...

Sex Crazed "Flying Salt Shakers Of Death"

When they do emerge, Cicadas only have one purpose. Getting it on! and they can thank their zombie like mentality to a fungus that literally eats their rear end to the point the fungal spores spread like salt being shaken out of a container as the animal flies. because of their mental state they have no clue they are missing their rear end. Once the larva are hatched they return to the ground and the cycle starts all over again. by the way, the fungus is completely harmless to Humans.

So... when are these bugs flying in to Amarillo?

The good news or bad news depending on how you look at it is Brood X is generally confined to mostly areas east of the Mississippi River. There are no active periodical cicada broods here in the golden spread and the nearest to us is actually Brood IV which calls areas of the Red River Valley well east of Wichita Falls home. Don't hold your breath, they came out in 2015 and we wont hear from them until 2032.

There's plenty more wildlife that DOES call the panhandle home. Check it out!