Billions of cicadas are coming, what to do about mosquitoes, La Crosse’s No Mow May with Viterbo’s Ted Wilson

Entomologist, Dr. Ted Wilson, in the WIZM studio Thursday for La Crosse Talk PM to discuss these two cicada species emerging for the first time in 221 years, how we can stick it back to mosquitoes, plus the good and bad with “No Mow May” in La Crosse.

La Crosse Talk PM airs weekdays at 5:06 p.m. Listen on the WIZM app, online here, or on 92.3 FM / 1410 AM / 106.7 FM (north of Onalaska). Find all the podcasts here or subscribe to La Crosse Talk PM wherever you get your podcasts.

Before getting into the cicadas, Wilson, the Biology chair at Viterbo University, talks about how he got into the study of insects (5:55), his favorite insects and if there are bugs out there that intentionally want to do humans harm (8:20).

We then get into (10:00) this once-in-multiple-lifetimes event, where these two species of cicadas that emerge from the ground every 13 and every 17 years collide this spring — soon. Wilson talks about where it’s happening, how annoying it will be on the ears and how they know to come up every 13 and 17 years, what they’re doing underground, among other things.

After that, we discuss ticks and mosquitoes (25:00). It began with a previous conversation about eliminating mosquitoes completely and what that would do to the environment. This time, it was more about how we can limit their numbers, plus how wonky winters and springs affect insect populations.

Finished off the show (36:55) talking La Crosse’s third annual ‘No Mow May,” where you essentially don’t mow your lawn until June.