DuPage County staffers go viral for playful, educational cicada video

(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — As the Chicago area prepares for the emergence of large broods of cicadas, the DuPage County Forest Preserve District has produced a fun video to explain what will happen over the next several months.

Staff members from the forest preserve district — some wearing costumes — are shown on the video pretending to be cicadas as they demonstrate the life cycle of the insects. The video, which has over 285,000 views on TikTok , focuses on the cicadas that emerge every 17 years, even though cicadas that return every 13 years are also coming.

Tom Velat, an ecology supervisor with the forest preserve district, narrates the video.

“Where we are in the life cycle right now is the cicadas are hiding just below the soil’s surface and [will] emerge when the temperatures are right,” he said. “It’s roughly around 64 degrees, soil temperature, and they’ll come out [and] crawl up trees or other inanimate objects, like garages.”

Velat goes on to narrate how the cicadas mate and lay eggs, as well as what happens after the eggs hatch.

“They’ll feed for a short period of time, and then they’ll fall to the ground; they’ll start burrowing into the ground and then start feeding on plant roots — both trees as well as herbaceous plants — and then they’ll hang out there, feeding and growing for the next 17 years,” he said.

The producer of the video said the response has been very positive.

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