Why do cicadas come out every 17 years?
But Why: A Podcast for Curious Kids
Vermont Public
4.4 • 4.9K Ratings
🗓️ 31 May 2024
⏱️ 20 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This spring, trillions of periodical cicadas are emerging from the ground, where they’ve spent 13 or 17 years feeding on xylem (basically, tree juice). The two specific broods emerging this year have not come out at the same time since 1803, and kids may be hearing a lot of news about these loud insects. So today we’re tackling the cicada questions you’ve sent us: Why do cicadas come out every 17 years? What do cicadas eat? Why are there more cicadas at night than in the morning? Why do cicadas molt? How do cicadas get babies? We speak with Dan Gruner, professor of entomology at the University of Maryland, to get answers.
Download our learning guides: PDF | Google Slide | Transcript
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The This is, but why, a podcast for Curious Kids from Vermont Public. |
| 0:24.0 | On this show, we take questions from Curious Kids |
| 0:27.0 | all over the world and find interesting people to give us some answers. |
| 0:30.0 | I'm Jane Lindholm, and I'm... I'm Jane Lindholm and I'm... I'm Jane Lindholm and I'm... I'm Jane Lindholm and I'm the host of this show. |
| 0:40.0 | It's getting a little loud in here. Must be all the bugs! |
| 0:45.0 | Those are the sounds of insects known as periodical cicadas. |
| 0:50.0 | Let's take the cicadas out for a little while. |
| 0:53.0 | If you live in many parts of the eastern half of the United States right now, though, |
| 0:57.0 | you are probably very familiar with that sound, |
| 1:00.0 | and you can't just turn the volume down like I can here in the studio. |
| 1:04.4 | There are millions, maybe trillions of cicadas emerging across many parts of the eastern |
| 1:10.4 | United States right now. So we thought we'd jump on the |
| 1:13.9 | Cakeda bandwagon even though we just recently did a whole other show about insects and |
| 1:18.8 | answer your specific Cakeda questions and the guy we're going to talk to was once a lot like some of you. |
| 1:26.1 | I'm a little boy who loved collecting bugs and getting out into trouble outside and now they pay me to do this at a university as a |
| 1:38.5 | professor. |
| 1:39.5 | And what's your official title that we would put on our actual website. |
| 1:43.0 | Professor of Entomology at the University of Maryland. |
| 1:46.0 | That professor is named Dan Gruner. |
| 1:48.0 | Entomology is the study of insects. |
| 1:51.0 | So he's a professor who studies insects, and cicadas are one of his specialties. |
| 1:57.2 | So what are cicadas? |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Vermont Public, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Vermont Public and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.