Why Do Cicadas Live Underground for So Long?

Do you live in a state that gets noisy with cicadas during the summer?

Insects, including the kind that cicadas came from, were created around 6,000 years ago on day five of creation week. After the global flood of Noah’s day, insects quickly multiplied throughout the earth. Now, there are more than 3,000 species of cicadas. All species of cicadas are either annual (they emerge every year during the summer) or periodical (they emerge every 13 or 17 years).

Female cicadas lay hundreds of eggs in holes that they carve in tree branches. When the baby cicadas—called nymphs (nimfs)—hatch, they fall to the ground and burrow underground. For the next 2 to 17 years, the nymphs drink sap from tree roots before they come up out of the ground.

Scientists aren’t completely sure why periodical cicadas wait so long before they come up from underground, but they think one of the reasons might be for them to avoid predators.

How Do Cicadas Know When It’s Time to Emerge?

Cicadas drink the sap that flows from a tree’s roots up to its leaves. The sap grows richer in molecules called amino acids when trees blossom for the spring. Cicadas keep track of each time the sap changes. When the right number of tree growth cycles has passed, they know it’s time to emerge. Though cicadas can’t read a clock or follow a calendar like we can, God created them with their own way of knowing when they’re right on time.

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