Cicadas Return to the Sequatchie Valley

Some may call them creepy or crawly, but there is no doubt about it -- cicadas are loud.

"Basically they're all in this area," says Clyde Holland. "I'm not sure how big this area is, but I'm pretty much assuming that in this general vicinity, they're all over the place."

Clyde Holland lives just off Highway 127 in Bledsoe County. And it seems no matter where he walks or where he goes on his property, he sees a hole where cicadas came up from or an empty shell, or the cicada itself.

"I'd say billions would be a better estimate than millions...there's lots and lots of them. Everything's basically covered with them," he says.

According to the website CicadaMania.com, the bugs locally are all around Marion, Grundy, and Bledsoe Counties. Tom Stebbins with the U-T Extension office says the reason they're around is rather simple.

"This whole thing is just to have sex and to procreate," he says.

Stebbins adds there are different broods, or groups of cicadas with a similar life cycle. This brood, Brood 14, is mainly in the Eastern portion of the U-S.

"They're completely harmless, although their screeching sounds can terrify some people, you know," says Stebbins.

He says the cicadas should be gone in about a month. For Holland, they're not terrifying, just annoying.

Cicadas are known as a delicacy in certain parts of the world, so we had to ask him if he'd ever cook one up, since he has so many.

His response, "I'm sure in some countries they'd have a feast...they'd eat em with something or eat em raw, i'm not sure what, (but) no, not here. No, not here."

Stebbins says only the male cicadas sing to attract a mate, and the females can lay anywhere from 400 to 600 eggs. He adds there could be some cicadas in Hamilton County this year, but so far, there haven't been any reports.

One danger to watch out for with cicadas, though, is with pets. They're known to choke on the insects.