Over a Trillion Cicadas Are Coming. What Does That Mean for Wineries?

This week, for the first time in centuries, trillions of insects will simultaneously emerge from the ground to mate, lay eggs and, potentially, wreak havoc on food systems. Experts are bracing for biblical scenes: Two massive broods of periodical cicadas have begun descending upon the United States. (These are not locusts, as notably mentioned in the Old Testament; the two swarming bugs are often confused.) The insects are expected to appear in seventeen states, starting in Louisiana, Arkansas, Alabama and Mississippi before moving into South Carolina and spreading up through the Midwest and Northeast.

While periodical cicadas appeared in both 2020 and 2021, this spring marks the first time in over 200 years that two large broods, Brood XIX (known as the Great Southern Brood) and Brood XIII (the Northern Illinois Brood) will pop out of the ground at the same time. Translation? The last time this happened, Thomas Jefferson was president.

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After years of battling invasive insects like Japanese beetles and spotted lanternflies, there are fears that this huge swarm of noisy bugs will create even more chaos for struggling vines in emerging American Viticultural Areas (AVAs) in the Eastern United States. Here’s why this influx of winged, burrowing insects could be cause for concern.

A Bug’s Life

into two groups: annual and periodical. As the name suggests, small and dark annual cicadas appear annually, climbing out of the ground in July and lingering around for the rest of the summer.

Periodical cicadas, on the other hand, crop up periodically. These larger bugs, with bright red eyes and orange legs and wings, dig their way out of the earth every 13 to 17 years. They spend most of their life underground, feeding on sap from tree roots, before ascending from the dirt to shed their shells, ready to mate. Depending on the weather, broods of periodical cicada tend to appear in May and die off by late June.

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Males fly to treetops and let out a lusty, loud chorus by vibrating a membrane (similar to our eardrum) on their undersides to attract a partner. The female periodical cicadas cut into trees and vines, lay their eggs and the very slow life cycle begins again.

While they’re not likely winning any beauty contests, periodical cicadas cannot bite or sting. They’re not poisonous. They litter their shells over sidewalks and fields, but that’s the extent of their impact on humans. It’s more annoying than harmful.

The food chain, however, is heavily impacted. The growth of the cicada population causes a boom of wild turkeys, bats, snakes and birds—animals eager to snack on the young cicadas—alongside caterpillars and other bugs that opportunistically thrive with predators’ attention elsewhere.

What Does This Mean for Vineyards?

Grape growers are also impacted. Once periodical cicadas break through the dirt, they feed on trees and vines—including grapevines. Females lay eggs on budding shoots and trunks, sucking energy the vine needs to usher the grapes to ripeness. Meanwhile, the young feed on the roots, reducing vine vigor. This is why Doug Pfeiffer of the Department of Entomology at Virginia Tech, recommends wrapping vines for the six weeks that periodical cicadas are active.

Winemaker Maya Hood White of Early Mountain Vineyards in Madison, Virginia, has seen moderate cicada damage in the past. But she’s found by draping full canopy nets over the vines, “we don’t need to intervene during large cicada years,” she says. “They are effective in deterring damage from cicadas laying eggs.”

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Other winemakers rely on large-scale chemical control, spraying young vines with insecticides to help remove the eggs. However, “chemical applications are only effective once egg laying has begun,” says Hood White. By that point, bugs will already have damaged the plant. Additionally, Pfeiffer notes that insecticides can be toxic to beneficial species.

The other option requires a bit more foresight: just don’t plant in a “brood” year.

A more unorthodox tack? It may not solve the issue of cicada damage to plants, but the Insects are an increasingly popular protein alternative. Some chefs compare them to soft-shell crab—both have an edible, chewy shell. Ohio State University offers a guide to eating cicadas, while other media outlets have wine-pairing recommendations for the incoming broods. Since it’s supposedly similar in flavor to shellfish, some suggest washing cicadas down with dry white wine. (Here’s a selection handpicked by our tasting experts, if you’d like to try.)

rows of grapevine in vineyard covered in netting – Getty Images

So, Are Winemakers Worried?

On an average year, the bugs rarely venture to major American growing regions and the impact cicadas leave is light. “I’ve been farming here for 52 years,” says Cameron Hosmer, owner of Hosmer Estate Winery on Cayuga Lake. “I’ve yet to see a cicada.” However, as vineyards and winemaking has spread across the United States to areas that aren’t as well-known as, say, Napa or Sonoma, there’s more opportunity for the bugs to impact the industry.

It’s also hard to predict where these bugs have been resting. Remember, some of these cicadas have been dormant under the soil for 17 years. There could be a risk if a large number of periodical cicadas rise from below in a newly planted vineyard.

“In theory, if there was a lot of competition for food sources, cicadas would look for alternatives and we’d end up in a situation where they’re looking at grape vines,” says Andy Fles, vineyard manager at Shady Lane Cellars in Michigan. “And with climate change, who knows what the future looks like.”

About a decade ago, a brood emerged around Shady Lane Cellars, says Fles, but fortunately they mostly fed on trees. Thus far, they have not been “a huge pest,” he adds.

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In Central Virginia, at least, Hood White has also found that periodical cicadas prefer to feast on trees. Two of her vineyards are dotted with younger vines: the rocky mountainside Quaker Run and the rolling hills of Early Mountain. “We have gotten lucky on several occasions with cicadas,” she says. “And I suspect it’s due to both vineyards having surrounding wooded areas—it offers an attractive diversity of growth.”

So, will periodical cicadas impact wineries and wine production across the East and Midwest this year? The answer is maybe—it’s up to location and brood size.

“The only worry is if we get a swarm—they could suck all the carbon out of your vines and do the same type of damage a spotted lantern fly could do,” says Fles. “It’s like sticking in an IV and draining all a vine’s blood.”

Facing Off Against Other Enemies

At the moment, Fles— who makes wine in the picturesque Leelanau Peninsula AVA in the northern part of the Great Lakes State—has larger foes to worry about than the periodical cicada. “Deer are a far bigger threat to young vines,” he says. Fles currently relies on side netting, which are nets kept on the side of vineyards that are unrolled as needed to protect the vines from insects and deer. “The deer treat our vines like a salad bar—they rip off whole shoots,” he says. “Those are future flower clusters, which turn into future grapes.”

There are other invasive species infiltrating vineyards. In Ontario and Quebec, winemakers are battling Japanese beetles. In the United States, the spotted lanternfly, an invasive species of sap-feeding planthopper, has become an increasing concern. Vineyards in Pennsylvania that have experienced lanternfly infestations have lost up to 100% of wine grape crops.

“Spotted lantern flies are huge risk,” says Bruce Murray, owner of Boundary Breaks on Seneca Lake in New York’s Finger Lakes AVA. “We’ve seen heavy infestations in Pennsylvania, New York City and up through the Hudson River Valley. The problem hasn’t hit here yet at all, but it’s a big concern. Cicadas? We’re not thinking about that yet.”

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