The buzzing sounds all over Hannibal parks will be the focus of a family interpretive program offered by the Hannibal Parks & Recreation.
Starting at 10 a.m. Saturday, June 8 at the picnic tables about 600 feet past the playground at Riverview Park, the program is called “What’s With ALL These Cicadas?”
These programs are led by Hannibal Parks & Recreation’s Interpreter Guide Gale Rublee and members of the Mississippi Hills Missouri Master Naturalist chapter.
Billions of cicadas will buzz this spring as two broods emerge at the same time. These broods last emerged together in 1803 and won’t appear together again for 221 years. Rublee said, “If you’re under 13, you probably have never seen this many cicadas at once. If you’re older, then you might remember them from 2011, 1998, 1985, and 13 years before that and 13 years before that and… This brood is known as number XIX (19). There’s other cyclical cicada groups in Missouri that emerge every 13 and 17 years plus the annual ones that come out in late summer.” She noted that the cicadas don’t harm humans or pets unless a dog or cat eats too many of them and are a great source of food for birds and other animals.
But young trees could get damaged by the female cicadas cutting into branches to lay their eggs. More information is available from Missouri Department of Conservation and Missouri Extension.
Programs are free and open to the public but participation is limited. Register for space at www.hannibalparks.recdesk.com/Community/Program