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Cicadas in an ecosystem

Arman Milan

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posted 5 years ago

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What functions do cicadas play in an ecosystem?

T Blankinship

pollinator

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Location: South East Kansas

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Good question! I do not know the answer but I found a website called cicada mania (here is the link https://www.cicadamania.com/ ). I also found this NPR bit fun (here is the link https://npr.org/2021/03/24/980867225/brood-x-the-rise-of-the-17-year-cicadas )

You should never forget that every creature has its purpose in the cycle of nature and can also be very important to humans. Sepp Holzer's Permaculture

Ralph Sluder

pollinator

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posted 5 years ago

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I'm no expert but I do know they add tons of biomass back into the soil when they die off. They also increase the droppings of every creature around here. I have seen frogs and birds so full they could barely move, day after day till the cicadas were gone.

Anne Miller

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Location: USDA Zone 8a

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Cicadas are beneficial insects. They don't have mouthparts so for food they suck sap instead of eating vegetation.

They aerate the soil when they emerge. Their bodies serve as an important source of nitrogen for growing trees.

You can feed them to your chickens, etc.

Invasive plants are Earth's way of insisting we notice her medicines. Stephen Herrod Buhner
Everyone learns what works by learning what doesn't work. Stephen Herrod Buhner

K Kaba

pollinator

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Location: MD, USA. zone 7

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Food. If you're in an area with a heavy burst of them, every dog, cat, raccoon, bug eating bird, snake, rodent, etc is gorged senseless the entire time. And then all those exoskeletons get returned to feed the soil.

I do wonder if local cycles of them (the different swarms have different prime numbers) have any sort of tie in with how (especially nut) trees have abundant and slow years.

Heather Sharpe

gardener

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Location: Central Indiana, zone 6a, clay loam

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Welcome to Permies, Arman! What a great question!

The damage caused to twigs by cicadas laying eggs in them basically prunes them, thereby stimulating growth. Also detailed in this video, they sometimes serve as a host for a very strange fungus.

They certainly create a beautiful soundscape (at least to my ears). Wonder if that has any effects on their ecosystem?

“Action on behalf of life transforms. Because the relationship between self and the world is reciprocal, it is not a question of first getting enlightened or saved and then acting. As we work to heal the earth, the earth heals us.” ~ Robin Wall Kimmerer

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