You've planned the perfect wedding. Everything is exactly how you dreamed it will be. Then you get word that you have unexpected guests that might be arriving. Welcome to the emergence of the cicadas....
Like most insects, cicadas have many different species and each has a distinct cycle. There are the ones that come out every year but most people are more familiar with periodical ones that come out every 13 or 17 years.
They typically are seen emerging in May or June and this year expected to have dense concentrations in parts of Indiana, Ohio, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Tennessee. They mate and lay hundreds of eggs on trees so having a venue that has trees can be a factor in seeing them. Overall they are harmless.
When planning an outdoor wedding during the summer, when they are expected to appear, it can add an additional stressor as they can make an extremely loud buzzing sounds which can be disturbing to some guests. They also will shed their skin which leaves hundreds of exoskeletons laying on the ground for your guest to step on.
You can expect to see them starting in May in the years they are expected to appear going through the end of Summer. It's only a two month window but is during the popular outdoor wedding months.
Tyler Lowe with McNeely Pest Control suggests, “you may want to have a pretty good PA system so that the guests can hear what the couple is saying to each other. Otherwise, the couple may be drowned out by all of the clicking noise that the cicadas make. Besides the noise, cicadas will be nothing to worry about.”
