Cicada boom benefits birds, hurts other wildlife

weather is great for cicus Jack woo with the 22 News storm team is live in the studio with the effect cicus have on other Wildlife well Brian it's that time coming again cicas are going to be out and this year's a special one is multiple brdes cicas are merging at once but this comes to a detriment for some Wildlife billions of cicas are expected to mate this summer which means an abundant food source for birds like blue jays and red bellied woodpeckers entomologist Zoe getman Pickering explains what species may see side effects from this cicada Mating Season the caterpillars that they normally eat double in population because they don't have those birds eating them and then the damage that the caterpillars do to the trees also doubles Birds also saw surprising death totals due to the cicada emergence in 2021 getman Pickering also said that there's many effects experts are still trying to understand and unfortunately for us we won't be able to get some of these answers a few years down the road when these effects can be measured working for you I'm Jack with with the 22 new Storm Team