Three quick things:
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The arrival of cicadas during North Carolina summers can increase your chances of encountering a copperhead, an insect predator. This year, the state has a 13-year-old brood.
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The influx of cicadas does not cause an increase in the copperhead population, just a slightly increased chance of encounters. This is particularly true around oak trees, where cicadas are prevalent.
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To reduce encounters with copperheads during cicada season, you should avoid cicada hotspots and remember that the normal activity pattern for snakes (even during cicada season) is from dusk to dawn.
The long-awaited noisemakers have arrived.
The sounds of cicadas — fairly large insects with red eyes and long wings — can be white noise in North Carolina summers. The constant hissing, sometimes clicky music seems to hum over and over again as we open the windows to catch the cooler air every night as the hot summer day comes to an end.
Copperheads, the well-known venomous snake in our region, love this song. It’s the dinner bell.
As cicadas emerge to strip their shells and chirp their summer songs, copperheads stand by, awaiting a delicious meal. But does that mean you’re more likely to encounter snakes now, just because of the extra cicadas?
The News & Observer spoke with Falyn Owens, a wildlife biologist with the NC Wildlife Resources Commission, to learn more about snake and cicada activity this time of year — and what it means for the rest of us.
What are cicadas? How are they?
Cicadas are medium to large insects, with long, transparent wings, which are pointed over the body when at rest. There’s a species of them in North Carolina.
“Often, annual cicadas’ most deafening choruses occur during the hottest days of the year, leading to another common name for this group: dog day cicadas,” Jeff Hall, a snake expert with the NC Wildlife Commission, told The N&O for the last time. year.
Annual “Dog Day” cicadas They are large, robust and dark insects, with lighter, greenish spots on the wings. They appear every summer. There are at least seven species of them in North Carolina.
Periodic cicadas they have reddish-orange eyes and are usually seen in their thousands. These appear in longer cycles, every 13 or 17 years.
Cicadas are sometimes incorrectly called “harvest flies” (which are not flies) or “grasshoppers” (which are grasshoppers).
When do cicadas emerge in North Carolina?
This year, we are seeing (and already hearing) the periodic summer brood. North Carolina is experiencing a periodic brood of 13s (called Brood XIX, or 19).
Nationally, two periodic broods are emerging at the same time, but they occur in different locations. The only place in the country with a small overlap is in central Illinois.
In North Carolina, annual cicadas appear during the hottest days of the yearwhich usually occurs in July and August.
Male cicadas sing a high-pitched mating cry to attract females. After mating, females lay their eggs into bark or branches in a double row up to four or five inches long, according to NC State Extension.
Small pale nymphs hatch six to ten weeks later and fall to the ground. There, they are buried for years. While in the ground, the nymphs feed on the roots of various types of trees.
Do more cicadas mean more copperheads?
No, there is no greater number of snakes in the region because of the emergence of 2024. But there may be a slightly higher chance of encountering a copperheadespecially from dusk to dawn when they are normally active.
This is because cicadas – mostly in nymph or larval form, although they also eat newly molted adults – are a species common prey for copperheads. This is especially true around oak treesthat support good cicada populations.
“Copperheads living in an immediate area may spend more time in a place where a lot of cicadas are emerging – to take advantage of the easy, protein-rich food source,” Owens said.
O snakes don’t travel long distances to look for cicadas, and they don’t suddenly become more active daytime. (Like all of us, they try not to exert too much energy during the hottest parts of our sweltering summer days.)
“It’s important for people to understand that they will no longer see copperheads unless they are actively coming out at night and finding trees with unusually large numbers of cicadas emerging from their roots,” Owens said.
“Otherwise, there is no greater chance to find a copperhead.
How to Avoid Copperheads During Cicada Season
To avoid copperheads as best as possible, avoid cicadas hotspots. These patches don’t really change from year to year (as long as the host trees remain healthy). Many of these trees are oaks.
“Cicadas tend to be creatures of habit, at least in terms of where they are likely to emerge. Mature oak trees that have harbored countless cicada nymphs in the past This will likely be where cicadas will emerge again in large numbers,” said Owens.
“If you have seen many nymphs around a particular tree in the past, this is a good place to watch out for nymphs again, and potentially copperheads – especially from dusk to dawn when copperheads are actively searching for food.
(Safely) watch for copperheads and cicadas this summer
Cicadas can be almost anywhere there is soil and trees, although they especially love large oaks.
“If you have large oak trees on your property and notice a large number of cicada nymph skins left behind from molting, you can go out at night, either right at dusk or a little later and see if you catch a glimpse of this fascinating interaction between copperheads and cicadas,” Hall said last year.
“Be safe, make sure you have good light, and be careful while investigating, but you might stumble upon some truly amazing wildlife theater!”
How to identify a copperhead snake
Adult Copperheads have the following characteristics:
Standard: The hourglass-shaped patterns on his back look like Hershey’s Kisses.
It can be difficult to trust just at markings, especially if you haven’t seen many copperheads in person or just caught a quick glimpse of them.
“There can be a lot of variation in color and pattern with spots and blotches between kisses,” said Talena Chavis, certified wildlife relocation specialist and owner of NC Snake Catcher in Cary.
Color: Copperheads are brownish-gray. They camouflage easily inside dry leaves and wood debris.
Newborn or very young copperheads have the same color and pattern as adults, but their brightly tipped tails make them stand out.
“It has a light brown, coppery, or tan (sometimes grayish or pinkish) ground color, with strongly contrasting brown crossbands in an hourglass or dumbbell shape,” says the Wildlife Resources Commission.
Length: Adult copperheads can grow to about a meter in length.
For a detailed look at the copperhead snake, visit newsobserver.com/news or www.ncwildlife.org.
The three bullet points at the top of the article were created using an AI summary tool and edited by journalists. Read more about our AI policy here.
Trillions of cicadas this summer? An NC State bug expert tells us what to expect
Tips for treating bites and avoiding encounters with copperheads and other snakes in North Carolina
