Is it possible to raise cicadas? It is, but it requires patience and commitment.
The master of raising cicadas is a Japanese amateur cicada biologist named Shougo Murayama. Shougo has raised more than 1,000 cicadas of six or more species from eggs to adults in his backyard by growing them in see-through pots in clay soil with Aloe or Yucca plants. You can visit his website for more information (tip: use Firefox for better display of the text & then cut and paste it into Google translate). According to Shougo Murayama’s website, the cicadas he raised had 2 to 5-year life cycles.
David Logan of New Zealand successfully raised Kikihia ocharina cicadas from egg to adult. The details of this study can be found in the article Nymphal development and lifecycle length of Kikihia ocharina from 2006. It is important to note that K. ocharina have a short 3-year lifespan, and Logan raised the nymphs in pots with live plants. Logan’s study includes a section about the care of the cicada’s egg before they hatch; hatching can take months, so this part is important. Logan placed the twig with eggs in a vial which he blocked with a moist material.
Logan conducted another study in 2014, this time with Amphipsalta zelandica (Boisduval), proving his methods work.
Richard Karban raised 15-year-old Magicicada nymphs to adulthood using peach trees as hosts for his study of how periodical cicadas keep track of time. This is not quite the same thing as raising cicadas from eggs, but it shows they can be raised outside of their natural habitat. Karban observed a high rate of mortality from the difficult process of transferring cicadas to new roots.
Most people who visit this website (Cicada Mania) are looking for American periodical cicada (Magicicada) information. Raising Magicicada would be quite a commitment. You’ll need an environment that mimics the Magicicada’s natural habitat, including the right soil & host plans, and you’ll need to maintain for at least 13 years (for the 13 year species, 17 years for the 17).
If you’re serious and live in the United States, a cicada with a short lifecycle like Diceroprocta apache will require less of a commitment.
Should you decide to raise cicadas, be sure to read the resources mentioned in this article, and consider the following tips:
- Expect 95% of the cicadas to die
- Care of the eggs is critical
- Use host plants and soil preferred by the species
- Use a species that has a short life cycle
- Use see-through pots so you can see the cicadas as they develop
I might consider doing this experiment myself, but I would definitely choose a species with a short life-span. I might place some grasses in the pot, in addition to a larger host plant, to give 1st instar nymphs more tiny roots to choose from. I have a (perhaps irrational) fear of a house guest dumping a cup of coffee into my cicada host plant and killing the entire experiment.
Thanks to Chris Simon of The Simon Lab at UConn for pointing me to many of these references.
References:
Logan, DP. 2006. Nymphal development and lifecycle length of Kikihia ocharina (Walker)(Homopetera:Cicadidae). The Weta, 31:12-22.
Logan, DP, Rowe CA, Maher BJ. 2014. Life history of chorus cicada, an endemic pest of Kiwifruit (Homopetera:Cicadidae). New Zealand Entomologist. 37:2:96-102.
Karban, R, Black CA, Weinbaum SA. 2000. How 17-year cicadas keep track of time. Ecology Letters. 3: 253-256.
I am extremely, EXTREMELY interested in raising cicadas, mostly as pets or as a hobby but also to study! I’m just worried that i might not do it right… have any new resources popped up since this article was written, by any chance? Do you know of any ways to contact the people listed here, especially Murayama? He seems to have the best set up i found, but i don’t know how he keeps the aloe alive– aloe generally doesn’t do well in clay soils because it holds moisture, which results in root-rot 🙁 Any help you could provide would be lovely. We have a lot of cicadas around here that i’m interested in raising
Grow butterflies instead. It’s a “sure thing” and much more rewarding.