Residents of East Baltimore are prepping for the long-awated 17 year return of Brood-X, otherwise known as the periodical cicadas which will swarm 15 states and Washington, DC as they do every seventeen years. The cicadas will be more than a noisy bug in Baltimore's beautiful Patterson Park, though, as residents prepare with an artful celebration that will last all summer long.
Starting in May, and lasting throughout the summer, a large-scale art installation created by the Formstone Castle Collective will be the other thing swarming the park with cicadas. They'll celebrate the return of the winged creatures by placing larger-than-life formstone bugs throughout the park to commemorate the 17-year return and to celebrate the brood.
Local industry DAP Products, Inc has donated more than 600lbs of Plaster of Paris to the project, keeping the art hyper local, since it's just a few blocks toward the harbor that visitors can see the DAP logo as the spot boats coming in and out of the harbor or walk along the water and have a famously delicious Orange Crush at one of the waterfront restaurants.
Interested supporters can even adopt a cicada to get in on the fun. For a mere $40, folks can sponsor a cicada, and follow the organization's map to see where the vocal bugs have been placed around the park. Visitors can take photos with their bugs, or just spot them on the map. They've even got their own Facebook page at Cicada Art Project 2021 if you care to follow along or send a friend request to check their progress.
The Formstone Castle Collective is working closely with Baltimore Parks and Rec to make sure that the creatures are placed safely within the park, and that they do no harm. For example, the critters will be nestled along poles with wire to keep them hanging safely, and the parks department will oversee any installations in the park's hundreds of trees to ensure no damage is done to the green space.
Brood X, as this year's cicadas are named, is the largest of the 17-year-broods in density and in the geographical area it will cover, which is approximately fifteen states. The little guys will come out when the soil temperatures hit 64 degrees a few inches below the surface, which is typically sometime in May in Southwestern PA and Maryland, the northernmost states where the cicadas will emerge. It's usually around when the outdoor temperatures hit about 80.
Cicadas have a reputation for just one thing: noise. And the reason they are so noisy? Dating. The cicadas have just one job during the short time they are around - they have to find a partner and make more cicadas. So far, the cicadas have been pretty good at making more cicadas, and making lots of noise. According to University of Maryland's Mike Raupp, "it's going to be pretty remarkable." He said, " The densities of these things is going be phenomenal, about 1.5 million per acre. It blows your mind."
So residents of Patterson Park will not only get to enjoy the live cicadas, but the far more silent plaster ones, measuring in at 18 inches long, and 8lbs apiece, the more artful insects will be around far longer than nature's cicadas, which will head back into dormancy after just a few weeks, leaving us with the silence and solitude of our plaster fellows, and a long, quiet summer ahead.