Billions of Cicadas Set to Invade Parts of USA for First Time in 17 Years
Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
Periodical cicadas emerge from underground in the spring of their 13th or 17th year. Fifteen US states are about to see a whole lot of them.
[...] Periodical cicadas, as they're known, spend almost their whole lives a foot or two underground, living on sap from tree roots. Then, in the spring of their 13th or 17th year, mature cicada nymphs emerge for a short adult stage, synchronously and in huge numbers. Really huge numbers.
"They may amass ... in parks, woods, neighborhoods and can seemingly be everywhere," Michigan State University entomologist Gary Parsons explained in an MSU question and answer session on the phenomenon last year. "When they are this abundant, they fly, land and crawl everywhere, including occasionally landing on humans."
[...] This spring, it'll be time for members of one of the largest broods of 17-year cicadas, known as Brood X, to burrow out from their subterranean hideouts and show off their black bodies and bold red eyes. Fifteen states will hear the romantic serenades of males in trees, trying to attract females: Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia, as well as in Washington, DC.
The return of the cicadas typically starts around mid-May and runs through late June and is, needless to say, a wild spectacle.
[...] The bugs are harmless, Parsons stresses, and typically don't come indoors, though they do gather on outside walls.
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