A massive group of cicadas will be making its way to the surface world this summer across the eastern United States.
Brood X has been underground for the past 17 years but will be making its above-ground appearance later in 2021.
There could be as many as 1.5 million cicadas per acre, with the total population possibly in the trillions, Michael Raupp, emeritus professor of entomology at the University of Maryland, estimated.
The insects are expected to appear in 15 states, including Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. The bugs will also show up in Washington, D.C.
“A brood is a geographically distinct massive emergence of periodical cicadas that happens either once every 13 years or 17 years,” Raupp told USA Today. “There are several of these broods depending on location and depending on year.”
The brood is expected to emerge in late May and will spend two to four weeks flying about. The cicadas will then lay their eggs in trees. The offspring, once hatched, will travel underground and reemerge in 2038. Larger trees will be unharmed by the process, but younger trees will be at greater risk.
“If you’re planning to plant an older tree or a sapling, it might be best to wait until the brood is back in the ground or place mesh netting over your trees,” Jerome Grant, a University of Tennessee entomologist, told the Knoxville News Sentinel.
The cicadas, though annoying, do not pose a direct threat to humans, he added.
“They’re not going to harm your pets or carry away small children,” he said.
Raupp warned pet owners not to let their dogs eat too many of the bugs.
“I don’t see how you couldn’t be excited about it,” Grant added. “These periodical cicadas really are a wonder of nature.”
