Cicadas pee from trees. And they can urinate a lot, a new study finds.
Cicadas pee from trees. And they urinate a lot, new study finds.
03:13
As if lying dormant in the dirt for 17 years isn’t weird enough, cicadas possess another bizarre habit: they pee like crazy, up to 10 feet per second. The news comes as they’re preparing to emerge in the Chicago area, one of the most populous zones on this year’s cicada map.
A study credited to two Georgia Institute of Technology authors — titled “Unifying Fluidic Excretion Across Life From Cicadas to Elephants” — posits that cicadas weighing mere grams “possess the capability for jetting fluids through remarkably small orifices.”
Scientists who study such things have found that cicadas urinate in a jet stream because they consume an incredible volume of fluid.
Brood XIX, which comes out every 13 years, and Brood XIII, which comes out every 17 years. Both of those broods are expected to hatch in various places throughout Illinois this cycle.
Because they are temperature-dependent, their emergences may vary depending on the location. In 2024, they are expected sometime in May or early June, according to Ken Johnson, a horticulture educator at the University of Illinois.
Once they’ve hatched, cicadas generally live only for a certain amount of weeks. They spend the majority of their time reproducing.
John Dodge
Source: cbsnews.com