Iowa’s bumper crop of buzzing cicadas this year may lead to a population boom in another, much-smaller insect known as the oak leaf itch mite.
St. Louis-area entomologist Tad Yankoski says the mites are tiny, but there are many, many millions of them emerging in Missouri, and Iowa could be next.
“So there have been confirmed reports of this mite feasting on cicada eggs,” Yankoski says, “and as a result, their populations have exploded in some areas.”
Unlike mosquitoes, these weensy mites don’t seek people out, but he says if they find you, you’ll know it.
“Most people that end up with serious bites were spending time raking leaves,” Yankoski says, “working on trees or shrubs around oak trees or maybe sitting on the ground, playing on the ground underneath these trees.”
Those mite bites can leave annoying welts that might persist for days or even weeks. Cicadas can grow one to two inches in length, and they’re insect giants compared to these mites.
“They are almost too tiny to see, significantly smaller than a millimeter,” he says. “So they almost look like pieces of dust landing on you, or being blown, or falling out of the sky, or blown from the wind.”
Iowa saw emergences of both the 13- and 17-year cicada broods this spring, with large populations in both northeast and southeast Iowa.