HUDSON, Ohio - The 17-year cicadas are emerging in northeast Ohio and heading for the trees.
The first cicadas appeared in northern Hudson on Monday. They are expected to emerge throughout northeast Ohio in the next several days.
By Tuesday afternoon, encouraged by the warmth, hundreds of cicadas in Ohio came out of their holes and began climbing tree trunks.
They are still quiet. The noise will begin in a few days.
As they climb trees they shed their skin, Twinsburg naturalist Stanley Stein said. Once their wings harden they start to fly.
"Once they are up in the trees they start singing and courting and mating," he said.
Cicadas don't cause damage to trees by chewing leaves like other insects do, according to cicadamania.com.
Damage is caused because they lay their eggs in grooves in the branches of trees, the site said.
"Cicadas are technically parasites of the trees, and they need the trees to survive throughout their entire life cycle, so killing trees is not in the cicadas best interest," it says.
Cicadas don't eat by chewing up leaves; instead they drink their meals, the site said.
"Cicadas use their mouthparts to tap into trees and drink tree fluids called xylem," it says. "Occasionally you'll see cicadas piercing a branch with their mouthparts to take a drink."
The weakest limbs of a tree are often temporarily damaged or killed off, the result of which is called flagging, as the leaves of the branch will turn brown and look like a flag.
Young trees, ornamental trees and fruit trees will be more prone to damage as they are typically smaller and weaker than older native hardwood trees. People can pick off the cicadas or spray the tree with a hose.
Only male cicadas will make sounds, according to cicadamania.com. Males have organs on their abdomen called tymbals. Muscles pop the tymbals in and out, which creates the sound we hear.