It’s that time again: cicada time.
Billions of the flying bugs are expected to pop out of the ground this spring and hum across the southern and eastern U.S.
The red-eyed group known as Brood XIV is expected to be seen across 13 states, but Kentucky and Tennessee will likely get the most this year, Gene Kritsky, Professor Emeritus of Biology at Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati, recently USA Today.
“It takes about two full weeks for the great bulk of the cicadas to come out,” he said. “Once they start coming out at a specific location, that starts the clock. You’ll have cicadas at that location for the next six weeks.”
Residents from northeast Georgia to southern Ohio, Pennsylvanians, New York’s Long Island and Massachusetts’ Cape Cod should also be on alert for the periodical cicadas this year, according to data from the University of Connecticut.
When states can expect the winged creatures depends on the weather. As ground temperatures warm to 64 degrees, the cicadas will emerge for the first time in 17 years. The first states to get cicadas will be in the South, with Tennessee, South Carolina and Georgia possibly seeing them as early as mid-April.
"The trees will just be screaming with all these males singing," Kritsky, told Fox Weather over the weekend.
The scream of cicadas, a rhythmic and high-pitched sound used to attract mates, is particularly memorable for humans, who have mistakenly called the cops over the alarming buzzing sound.
“It was the day before yesterday, early in the morning, and I kept hearing this drone – constant droning this one tone,” South Carolinian Mary Petrou told WSOC-TV 9 last year.
Some cicadas have been recorded at levels as loud as a lawnmower, motorcycle or tractor, according to the National Institutes of Health.
But the cacophony won’t last very long. Cicadas live hard and fast, surviving for just over a month after they mate and lay their eggs, with minimal damage to the environment. After that, the adults die and their offspring burrows back into the ground. The brood will vanish again until 2042, according to WTHR 13.
“They can be scary because of how loud they are and unexpected, but they are totally harmless,” Chris Hayes, a postdoctoral scholar at N.C. State University who specializes in educating the pest management industry on critter habits, told The Charlotte Observer. “You could pick one up and hold it in your hand all day, and all it would do is buzz or scream at you to let it go.”
