Cicadas in Chicago

Top Stories

The head of a cicada sits on a table after West Virginia University mycology professor Matt Kasson cut the head and thorax from a live periodical cicada infected with the Massospora cicadina fungus during field processing at Morton Arboretum on Thursday, June 6, 2024, in Lisle, Ill. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Collecting Sex-Crazed Zombie Cicadas on Speed: Scientists Track a Bug-Controlling Super-Sized Fungus

With their bulging red eyes and their alien-like mating sound, periodical cicadas can seem scary and weird enough. But some of them really are sex-crazed zombies on speed, hijacked by a super-sized fungus.

A tawny frogmouth at Brookfield Zoo made the wise choice to play with but not eat a periodical cicada. The insects have been linked to disease in some birds. (Jim Schulz / Brookfield Zoo Chicago)

Cicada-Induced Vitamin Deficiency Linked to Mystery Disease in Illinois Birds

All signs point to a cicada-induced vitamin deficiency as the cause of a mystery disease that affected some birds during a 2021 emergence and now again in 2024.

Thanks to our sponsors:

View all sponsors

A cicada’s lifespan is short, from alive and thriving to dead and rotting in a matter of weeks. (Patty Wetli / WTTW News)

Got Piles of Dead, Stinking Cicadas and Don’t Know What to Do? Treat Them Like Fallen Leaves, Expert Says

Members of the first wave of cicadas have done their thing: They came, they molted, they screamed, they bred, and now they’re dying.

The Field Museum’s Maureen Turcatel and Jim Louderman examine a cicada specimen to add to the Field’s insect collection, May 30, 2024. (Patty Wetli / WTTW News)

What’s New With Cicadas? Field Museum Heads Downstate in Search of Specimens in Convergence Region

The Field Museum has more than 10 million specimens in its insect collection and — believe it or not — not a single 13-year periodical cicada among them. So what better time than now to fill that gap?

Thanks to our sponsors: