Tuesday, February 25, 2025, 7:26PM |  52°
MENU
SECTIONS
OTHER
CLASSIFIEDS
CONTACT US / FAQ
Advertisement
A periodical cicada nymph is held in Macon, Ga., Wednesday, March 27, 2024. This periodical cicada nymph was found while digging holes for rosebushes. Trillions of cicadas are about to emerge in numbers not seen in decades and possibly centuries.
7
MORE

Invaders from underground are coming in cicada-geddon, and it's the biggest bug emergence in centuries

AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

Invaders from underground are coming in cicada-geddon, and it's the biggest bug emergence in centuries

Trillions of evolution’s bizarro wonders, red-eyed periodical cicadas that have pumps in their heads and jet-like muscles in their rears, are about to emerge in numbers not seen in decades and possibly centuries.

Crawling out from underground every 13 or 17 years, with a collective song as loud as jet engines, the periodical cicadas are nature’s kings of the calendar.

These black bugs with bulging eyes differ from their greener-tinged cousins that come out annually. They stay buried year after year, until they surface and take over a landscape, covering houses with shed exoskeletons and making the ground crunchy.

Advertisement

This spring, an unusual cicada double dose is about to invade a couple parts of the United States in what University of Connecticut cicada expert John Cooley called “cicada-geddon.” The last time these two broods came out together in 1803 Thomas Jefferson, who wrote about cicadas in his Garden Book but mistakenly called them locusts, was president.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore tours the wreckage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge a day after the Dali container ship crashed into it.
Sam Janesch and Emily Opilo
Key Bridge collapse puts Gov. Wes Moore, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott in political spotlight at pivotal moment

“Periodic cicadas don’t do subtle,” Mr. Cooley said.

If you’re fascinated by Monday’s solar eclipse, the cicadas are weirder and bigger, said Georgia Tech biophysicist Saad Bhamla.

“We’ve got trillions of these amazing living organisms come out of the Earth, climb up on trees and it's just a unique experience, a sight to behold,” Mr. Bhamla said. “It’s like an entire alien species living underneath our feet and then some prime number years they come out to say hello.”

Advertisement

At times mistaken for voracious and unrelated locusts, periodical cicadas are more annoying rather than causing biblical economic damage. They can hurt young trees and some fruit crops, but it's not widespread and can be prevented.

The largest geographic brood in the nation — called Brood XIX and coming out every 13 years — is about to march through the Southeast, having already created countless boreholes in the red Georgia clay. It’s a sure sign of the coming cicada occupation. They emerge when the ground warms to 64 degrees, which is happening earlier than it used to because of climate change, entomologists said. The bugs are brown at first but darken as they mature.

Soon after the insects appear in large numbers in Georgia and the rest of the Southeast, cicada cousins that come out every 17 years will inundate Illinois. They are Brood XIII.

“You’ve got one very widely distributed brood in Brood XIX, but you have a very dense historically abundant brood in the Midwest, your Brood XIII,” said University of Maryland entomologist Mike Raupp.

A person views from Fort McHenry a container ship as it rests against the wreckage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, Thursday, March 28, 2024, in Baltimore.
Lea Skene
In Key Bridge collapse, Baltimore lost a piece of its cultural identity

“And when you put those two together… you would have more than anywhere else any other time,” University of Maryland entomologist Paula Shrewsbury said.

These hideaway cicadas are found only in the eastern United States and a few tiny other places. There are 15 different broods that come out every few years, on 17- and 13-year cycles. These two broods may actually overlap — but probably not interbreed — in a small area near central Illinois, entomologists said.

The numbers that will come out this year — averaging around 1 million per acre over hundreds of millions of acres across 16 states — are mind-boggling. Easily hundreds of trillions, maybe quadrillions, Mr. Cooley said.

An even bigger adjacent joint emergence will be when the two largest broods, XIX and XIV, come out together in 2076, Mr. Cooley said: “That is the cicada-palooza.”

The origin of some of the astronomical cicada numbers can likely be traced to evolution, Mr. Cooley and several other entomologists said. Fat, slow and tasty, periodical cicadas make ideal meals for birds, said Mr. Raupp, who eats them himself. (His school put out a cicada cookbook called “Cicada-Licious.” ) But there are too many for them to be eaten to extinction, he said.

“Birds everywhere will feast. Their bellies will be full and once again the cicadas will emerge triumphant,” Mr. Raupp said.

The other way cicadas use numbers, or math, is in their cycles. They stay underground either 13 or 17 years, both prime numbers. Those big and odd numbers are likely an evolutionary trick to keep predators from relying on a predictable emergence.

The cicadas can cause problems for young trees and nurseries when their mating and nesting weighs down and breaks branches, Ms. Shrewsbury said.

Periodical cicadas look for vegetation surrounding mature trees, where they can mate and lay eggs and then go underground to feast on the roots, said Mount St. Joseph University biologist Gene Kritsky, a cicada expert who wrote a book on this year’s dual emergence. That makes American suburbia “periodical cicada heaven,” he said.

It can be hard on the eardrums when all those cicadas get together in those trees and start chorusing. It’s like a singles bar with the males singing to attract mates, with each species having its own mating call.

“The whole tree is screaming,” said Mr. Kritsky, who created a Cicada Safari app to track where the cicadas are.

Mr. Cooley takes hearing protection because it can get so intense.

“It’s up in the 110 decibel range,” Mr. Cooley said. “It’d be like putting your head next to a jet. It is painful.”

The courtship is something to watch, Mr. Kritsky imitated the male singing “ffaairro (his pitch rising), ffaairro.”

“She flicks her wings,” Mr. Kritsky narrated in a play-by-play. “He moves closer. He sings. She flicks her wings. When he gets really close, he doesn’t have a gap, he’ll go ffaairro, ffaairro, ffaairro, fffaairo.”

Then the mating is consummated, with the female laying eggs in a groove in a tree branch. The cicada nymph will fall to the ground, then dig underground to get to the roots of a tree.

Cicadas are strange in that they feed on the tree’s xylem, which carry water and some nutrients. The pressure inside the xylem is lower than outside, but a pump in the cicada’s head allows the bug to get fluid that it otherwise wouldn't be able to get out of the tree, said Carrie Deans, a University of Alabama Huntsville entomologist.

The cicada gets so much fluid that it has a lot of liquid waste to get rid of. It does so thanks to a special muscle that creates a jet of urine that flows faster than in most any other animal, said Georgia Tech’s Bhamla.

In Macon, Ga., T.J. Rauls was planting roses and holly this week when he came across a cicada while digging. A neighbor had already posted an image of an early emerging critter.

Mr. Rauls named his own bug “Bobby” and said he’s looking forward to more to come.

“I think it will be an exciting thing,” Mr. Rauls said. “It will be bewildering with all their noises.”

First Published: April 7, 2024, 9:30 a.m.

RELATED
The Fishing Wars Memorial Bridge, which has been closed indefinitely since October 2023 after the Federal Highway Administration raised safety concerns, is shown Tuesday, March 26, 2024, in Tacoma, Wash. Nearby business owners say they have noticed a decrease in customers as traffic has slowed on their street due to the closure.
David A. Lieb, Michael Casey, Jeff Mcmurray and Christopher Keller
Closed bridges highlight years of neglect, backlog of repairs awaiting funding
Imam Omar Niass leads evening prayers with mostly Senegalese migrants, before the breaking of Ramadan fast and the serving of a festive meal called an iftar, Friday March 15, 2024, at Bronx's Masjid Ansaru-Deen mosque in New York. The mosque, formerly the Imam's home, has been a refuge since 2020 where hundreds of African migrants can find help while seeking asylum in the United States.
Philip Marcelo
Mosques in NYC struggle to house and feed an influx of Muslim migrants this Ramadan
In this Sept. 29, 2023, photo at the grave of Lucky Pitka McCormick, her granddaughter Kathleen Carlo, left, and McCormick's great-great-grandchildren Lucia, center, and Addison Carlo place candles and stones on the grave during a reburial ceremony in Rampart, Alaska. Pitka was one of the Lost Alaskans sent to a mental hospital in the 1930s. Her grave was recently discovered, and family members brought her back to Alaska for a proper burial.
Mark Thiessen
Volunteers uncover fate of thousands of Lost Alaskans sent to Oregon mental hospital a century ago
SHOW COMMENTS (0)  
Join the Conversation
Commenting policy | How to Report Abuse
If you would like your comment to be considered for a published letter to the editor, please send it to letters@post-gazette.com. Letters must be under 250 words and may be edited for length and clarity.
Partners
Advertisement
Students at Penn State Fayette, the Eberly Campus in Lemont Furnace, walk to class on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025.
1
news
Penn State to close some commonwealth campuses, President Bendapudi announces
The two Franks worked with pizza legends Chris Bianco and Chad Robertson to perfect their craft.
2
life
A beloved pizzeria is expanding beyond Brooklyn. First stop, Mt. Lebanon.
Broderick Jones of the Pittsburgh Steelers takes to the field before the game /a at Acrisure Stadium on December 08, 2024 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
3
sports
Steelers plan to move Broderick Jones to left tackle
Pittsburgh Steelers general manager Omar Khan speaks during a press conference at the NFL football scouting combine in Indianapolis, Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025.
4
sports
Steelers GM Omar Khan says 'all options are on the table' for 2025 QB plans
Pittsburgh Steelers tight end Pat Freiermuth (88) celebrates a touchdown against the Cleveland Browns at Acrisure Stadium on Sunday, Dec. 8, 2024, in the Northshore. The Pittsburgh Steelers won 27-14.
5
sports
Ray Fittipaldo's Steelers chat: 02.25.25
A periodical cicada nymph is held in Macon, Ga., Wednesday, March 27, 2024. This periodical cicada nymph was found while digging holes for rosebushes. Trillions of cicadas are about to emerge in numbers not seen in decades and possibly centuries.  (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
A periodical cicada nymph wiggles its forelimbs in Macon, Ga., on Thursday, March 28, 2024. This periodical cicada nymph was found while digging holes for rosebushes. It is not ready to emerge and turn into an adult. Trillions of cicadas are about to emerge in numbers not seen in decades and possibly centuries. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)  (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
T.J. Rauls plants rosebushes in his yard in Macon, Ga., Wednesday, March 27, 2024. While digging the holes, Rauls unearthed a periodical cicada nymph and named it Bobby. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)  (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
A cicada hole is seen in the soil after a heavy rain on the campus of Wesleyan College in Macon, Ga., Wednesday, March 27, 2024. Cicadas preemptively dig tunnels to the surface before they are ready to emerge. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)  (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Georgia Institute of Technology biophysicist Saad Bhamla holds a periodical cicada nymph in his hand on the campus of Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta on Thursday, March 28, 2024. "We've got trillions of these amazing living organisms come out of the Earth, climb up on trees and it's just a unique experience, a sight to behold," Bhamla said. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)  (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
A periodical cicada nymph wiggles upside-down in the dirt in Macon, Ga., on Wednesday, March 27, 2024, after being found while digging holes for rosebushes. Trillions of cicadas are about to emerge in numbers not seen in decades and possibly centuries. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)  (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
A dirt-dusted periodical cicada nymph wiggles its forelimbs in Macon, Ga., on Thursday, March 28, 2024. This periodical cicada nymph was found while digging holes for rosebushes. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)  (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster
Advertisement
LATEST news
Advertisement
TOP
Email a Story