Cicada holes

[Heaviside1925]

I will preface by saying this may be a really stupid question or as a mentor told me once, "there's no such thing as stupid questions just stupid people". I am hoping by some small chance that someone during their university days might have heard of any discussions or research on this subject given the pedantry nature of some areas of academic research.

The other day I was reliving myself in my backyard (yes, I live in a heavily wooded rural area) and a favorite target of mine has been the holes left by the 17-year cicada larva. Soil type in my area is good'ol hardpan clay. I picture how much force those little guys had to exert to push their way through 16" of clay. In spite of my expert aim and fairly high flow rate, I have yet to fill one up. Additionally, my area has received a large amount of rainfall in the last month, yet all these holes remain intact.
So, this got me thinking, do all of these millions of little holes have run-off or groundwater / local water table implications or any other environmental implications such as aquifer upfill rates?
It may be totally insignificant and holes within the first 2' of grade would have zero effect on anything but I thought I'd throw it out there and see if anyone responds.

 

[telecomguy]

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