CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — If you live in the city of Chicago and were itching to see seas of cicadas in your neck of the woods — the chances are good that you’ve been disappointed so far.
“If you’re in an area where you know there’s a lot of urban development, especially recent urban development, I would definitely say lower those expectations for the amount of cicadas that you’re going to see this year,” said Henry Adams, a wildlife management coordinator at the Lincoln Park Zoo's Urban Wildlife Institute.
Adams said the reasoning was relatively straightforward: Urban areas have generally seen much more human disturbance than suburban or ex-urban landscapes.
“There might be areas that cicadas burrowed down into the soil 17 years ago, but it might now be covered up due to urban development,” he said.
Even if Chicagoans can’t see or hear the cicada emergence taking place, he said it’s still important to acknowledge how special the phenomenon is.
“Just remember that there are many, many broods of periodical cicadas that are emerging on these timescales across North America,” he said. “This is one of the only places in the world, maybe the only place in the world, where we see this kind of periodical emergence.”
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