It's all the buzz: Cicadas will be uninvited guests

Outdoor weddings and parties will surely be unusual in cicada season.
CINCINNATI (AP) -- Imagine a bride shouting "I do" over the screech of millions of cicadas, or a graduate navigating a sea of the insects to pick up a diploma, and it's easy to see why so many outdoor weddings and other ceremonies are being moved indoors.
"This year isn't going to be a good year for May and June," said Jane Wakerman, who works for the agency that schedules weddings in Cincinnati's city parks. "It looks like those who are strong-hearted and insist that they want to be married outdoors are the ones who have signed up."
Usually, the prime dates would have been reserved a year ago. But the agency foresaw the "Year of the Cicada," and advised couples, who had to initial a form stating they had been warned.
With so many weekend dates still available, the agency is waiving its usual $575 rental charge for tables and chairs.
Largest brood
There are 17 broods of periodical cicadas, and this year's Brood X -- that's the Roman numeral 10, not the letter -- is one of the largest. The shrimp-sized pests are expected by late May in parts of at least 10 states from Georgia to Indiana.
In Ohio, host to at least four broods, Brood X will be concentrated in the west-central and southwest parts of the state. The eastern half of the state got Brood V in 1999, Brood VIII hit counties neighboring West Virginia and 2002, and the southern tier of counties will get Brood XIV in 2008.
The horde won't be just a rural phenomenon.
"I remember the crunching -- you can't avoid walking on them," said Betsy Zelek, who worked at a downtown Cincinnati bank when the last generation came out in 1987. "It's messy, it's noisy and I remember not being able to walk around without them flying in your face.
"I swore 17 years ago that I would go to Europe the next time they came out," Zelek said. "But I messed up on the math; I didn't realize I would have a daughter graduating from high school."
Smelly air
Experts say the noise is annoying, and when the cicadas die the rotting carcasses can foul the air for a week. Other than that, Brood X probably will not do much obvious damage.
"The real harm goes unnoticed. It's the damage they do to tree roots during the 17 years they're in the ground," said Denny McKeown, who runs a nursery and has a gardening show on Cincinnati radio.
"As far as coming out of the ground, that's a benefit because it's like getting a free aeration," McKeown said. "They don't bother roses or shrubs or gardens. I find the worst part of the emergence to be afterwards -- the stench when they die. On a warm summer day, with a little bit of rain, it's unbearable."
Entomologist Gene Kritsky describes the smell as "rank Limburger." But then the carcasses decompose and the nutrients feed lawns like fertilizer, he said.
Cicadas shouldn't harm mature trees, and cheesecloth will help protect young ones. But there's not much that can be done about their "singing."
The College of Mount St. Joseph, where Kritsky teaches, is in the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport flight path. When the cicadas emerge, "You can't hear planes fly over," he said.
Many insects
He estimates the Brood X population will be 100 per square yard, at least 5 billion in southwest Ohio alone. Nature's plan is to produce so many that birds can eat their fill with enough left over to propagate, he said.
Cincinnati State Technical and Community College has moved its spring commencement to a downtown convention center rather than hold it in a tent on campus, as in recent years.
"People are pretty happy about it, especially the graduates," said spokeswoman Michele Imhoff. "We have a very long procession from one of our buildings into the tent. They would have not been very happy campers."
Zelek is hoping her daughter's June 4 graduation at Indian Hill High School won't be moved indoors.
"Everybody prefers to have it outside because of the space," she said. "If it's moved indoors to the gym, each graduate will be allowed only three guests."
People who know only the green and black "dog day" cicadas that come out each July and make their buzzing sound high in trees won't be prepared for this year's onslaught.
Periodical cicadas -- so called because they appear at regular intervals -- have red eyes and reddish markings. They mate, lay eggs and die, and the nymphs burrow into the ground to start the 17-year cycle again, all in the space of a few weeks.
There are 12 known broods of 17-year cicadas, and three broods of the 13-year variety, Kritsky said. Most are east of the Mississippi, but some range as far west as Kansas and Oklahoma.
They emerge somewhere 12 out of every 17 years, but none are due again until the next brood shows up around Chicago in 2007, Kritsky said
Some can't wait
Bug lovers can't wait for next month's emergence.
"This is what we live for," Kritsky said.
Wakerman, who is from Singapore, said the sound made by cicadas reminds her of the tropics.
"It's kind of like music to my years," she said. "I'm looking forward to it."
But for thousands of other people, cicadas are just a nuisance.
Zelek is planning an outdoor party for her daughter's graduation.
"We won't know until the week of the party whether we'll have to have it inside," she said. "My husband, forever the optimist, says not to worry because by then they [cicadas] will be around a week or two and people will be used to them. I don't buy that."