"Magic" in No Mow May!

We are in the middle of May, which is an important month for many native insect species. For several years now, a movement has been growing among people who appreciate these important members of the natural world. The movement includes an activity, or perhaps more correctly, a non-activity that followers are pursuing called “No Mow May,” in which homeowners choose not to mow their lawns.

The reason is that this allows various species of wildflowers to fully mature and produce flowers, thereby supplying nectar for pollinating native bees and bumblebees, flies, hoverflies, wasps, sweat bees, and other species dependent on this resource for their life cycles. These pollinators are also important to humans in promoting their gardens, whether for aesthetic beauty or for vegetables, and they are necessary for pollinating many agricultural food crops. They also are essential to a diversity of bird species in providing caterpillars and other larvae that are the only food that baby birds can eat. The adult parents easily digest seeds, nuts, and berries, but their little hatchlings cannot. Without such native insects, there would be few or no birds in our yards.

But spring 2025 has an extra special significance in the insect world. This year we are seeing the return of “Brood XIV” of an insect known commonly as the Periodical Cicada, Magicicada septemdecim, which are currently emerging from the soil after feeding on underground tree roots for the past 17 years. This is their only chance in life to mate and assure their offspring will carry on the species for the next 17 years. Cicada larvae are getting their second look at daylight since 2008, when they first hatched out of eggs their parents laid within tree twigs, dropped to the ground, and burrowed into the earth so many years ago. Countless larvae are climbing fences, tree trunks and other solid natural or manmade structures on which to rest, where they split their skins and crawl out of newly-hardened exoskeletons to become mating adults.

In my unmowed lawn, Magicicada is also taking advantage of many tall wildflower stalks to undergo this amazing (and truly “Magic!) metamorphosis. Their favorite plant in my lawn is an aster-like member of the Sunflower Family, “Common Rough Fleabane.”  I let these beauties bloom for other insects each spring, but this year, they have taken on a new importance in supporting the cicadas. I couldn’t possibly consider mowing down and killing these creatures with a lawnmower blade -- not to mention thoughtlessly stepping on the

numerous ones just crawling out in search of a pedestal to climb.

Some people are repulsed by these insects. But with their vermillion eyes, yellow orange-tinted forewings, and almost butterfly-like fluttering through the air, I see only beauty. Their calling is a high-pitched whir, as opposed the much louder and harsh rattling of the annual cicadas (though they also deserve their place in the natural order). I’m also fascinated by the almost 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. duration of their calling. It’s as if they work the same hours as many humans! But no overtime for them; Happy Hour is a time to rest up for the next day of mating. And after three to four weeks, their short adult lives will come to an end. I only hope I will be around to welcome their kids as the new adults to my yard in 2042!