Staying Safe

Cicada Season and Your Dog: The Risk Isn't Poison, It's the Buffet

Cicadas can't bite, sting, or poison your dog. The real hazard is a dog who gorges on dozens of crunchy exoskeletons, and the fix is one command you can teach now.

By Tom Hadley, Training & Behavior Writer

July 1, 2025 · 4 min read

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Every cicada-season headline frames the bugs as a threat, and every spring a wave of pet parents braces as if billions of tiny poisoners are climbing out of the ground. Here is the reframe that actually keeps a dog safe: a cicada cannot bite your dog, cannot sting it, and is not toxic. The danger isn’t the insect. It’s the all-you-can-eat scavenging opportunity it creates, and that’s a problem you manage with training, not panic.

That distinction holds up year after year. The 2024 “double emergence,” when the 13-year Brood XIX and the 17-year Brood XIII surfaced together for the first time since Thomas Jefferson was president, made the loudest news. But the math repeats on a rolling schedule. In 2025, Brood XIV emerged across roughly 13 states, heaviest in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio, with cicadas reaching densities estimated near 1.5 million per acre in the thickest spots. Whenever and wherever it happens, the playbook for your dog is the same.

First, the reassuring part: cicadas can’t hurt your dog directly

Cicadas don’t bite or sting, and they carry no venom or toxin that’s dangerous to dogs or cats. They are loud, clumsy, and abundant, but harmless to touch. Even the eerie sound, which the Newberry County Sheriff’s Office in South Carolina once fielded 911-style calls about, describing “a noise in the air that sounds like a siren, or a whine, or a roar,” turned out to be nothing but the chorus of emerging bugs.

So the threat was never chemical. It’s behavioral, and it’s yours to head off.

The real risk: a dog who eats too many

A dog who snaps up one or two cicadas will almost always be fine. The trouble starts with the scavenger who treats a sidewalk paved with dead bugs as a snack table.

“A few cicadas are a non-event. A dog who inhales twenty of them is a different story,” said Dr. Amara Solis, a veterinarian who consults for The Pet Times. “Those exoskeletons are basically chitin, the same hard material in a crab shell, and a dog’s gut isn’t built to break that down in volume.”

When a dog gorges, the consequences are mechanical and gastrointestinal rather than poisonous:

Stomach upset, vomiting, and diarrhea, sometimes with blood, from a belly full of indigestible shells.
A choking or obstruction risk from wads of hard wings and exoskeletons, especially in small dogs.
An occasional allergic reaction to the fine, hair-like structures on cicada legs, though this is uncommon.
A secondary chemical risk that has nothing to do with the bug itself: cicadas that have landed on lawns or trees treated with pesticides can carry that residue into your dog.

If your dog eats a pile of cicadas and then shows persistent vomiting, bloody stool, lethargy, or signs of belly pain, call your vet. Most cases resolve with rest and a bland diet, but the obstruction and pesticide scenarios are the ones worth a same-day call.

The fix is a command, not a quarantine

You do not need to keep your dog inside for six weeks. You need to control what goes in their mouth on walks, and the tool for that is a reliable “leave it.” It’s worth drilling before the bugs arrive, not during the feeding frenzy.

Teach “leave it” on low-stakes objects first, then proof it outdoors with real distractions, rewarding heavily every time your dog turns away from something on the ground.
Walk on leash through peak emergence so you can steer away from the thickest carpets of bugs and shells.
Pick the cleaner route. Cicadas cluster near mature trees; a sidewalk or open path will have far fewer than a wooded park edge.
Watch the dedicated foragers most closely. If your dog is the type to eat anything, treat cicada season the way you’d treat a beach littered with chicken bones.

For the anxious dog, manage the noise too

Beyond the snacking, the sheer volume and movement can rattle a sensitive pet. As the Cook County Department of Animal and Rabies Control advised during a past emergence, “The noise, size, and movements of cicadas may be startling to some pets,” and a frightened animal does best directed “to an area with fewer cicadas like a comfortable and quiet place inside the home to relax.” A white-noise machine, a familiar blanket, and a calm interior room go a long way for a dog who finds the racket distressing.

Cicada season looks apocalyptic and is mostly theater. Treat it as a training opportunity rather than an emergency, and both of you can walk through it unbothered.