LAKE GENEVA — Tatum Savage is very observant for a three-year-old.
His grandmother, Patti Smith, says that he loves bugs.
"He's my little buddy," said Smith. "We'll go through bug books at home, and then, when we dig in the grass, we find other bugs that we just saw in the book that are in our yard."
On Friday morning, the two went for a stroll. As they rounded the corner by Terrie Mess's house, they noticed something incredible.
"The more we looked, the more we saw the ground moving," said Smith.
The two had stumbled across periodical cicadas emerging from the ground.
"We looked, and we saw more and more and more, and then we looked more, and they were in the grass, on the telephone pole, and in the leaves," said Smith.
The cicadas were crawling all over the front corner of Terrie Mess's yard.
"I was working in the garden, and I saw him squatting down," said Mess. "I'm like, "What is he doing? So I came over and explained what they were to him."
Mess sent in the photos to TMJ4.
PJ Liesch, with UW's Department of Entomology, along with the DNR, confirmed that this represents the first report they are aware of in Wisconsin this year.
Tatum spent the morning and the evening hanging out with Terrie and Barry Mess. The two are former teachers who love science.
"He was so excited; he spent over an hour here, just asking all these questions and finding them," said Terrie.
What was missing on Friday was the iconic hum that cicadas make. That's because male cicadas take about a week before they start producing sound, according to Liesch.
"They don't bite. They don't harm the environment. They don't do anything. The birds love them," said Mess.
This year is historic as two broods of periodical cicadas are emerging throughout the country. The last time they emerged together was back in 1803.
"It makes me really excited. I even bought shirts today, just to remember," said Smith. "Remember when you were this small and you found cicadas?" Now, I can be like, "We found the first ones in Wisconsin."
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