Toni Whaley, age 12, of Muncie, Indiana, for her question:

How long do locusts stay underground?

The true locusts are grasshopper type insects. The females lay pods of rice like eggs in the ground, just below the surface. The brood may hatch later in the summer or spend the winter in the ground and hatch in the spring. The hatchlings are hungry nymphs that devour all the greenery they can grab. When their local populations are unchecked, locusts may strip their food supplies and swarm off in famished hordes to plague fresh areas of greenery.

The so called 17 year locust and his kinfolk are not related to the genuine grasshopper type locust. They are cicadas. The females lay their eggs on trees, near the ends of the twigs. These soon hatch and the grubby nymphs drop to the ground, where they burrow down to feed on the sap of plant roots. As they grow, they molt several times and finally return upstairs to emerge as winged adults. The annual cicadas spend a year underground. Other species take three years or five years to mature and the 17 year cicada reappears after 17 years.