17-Year Cicadas Are Starting To Appear In These States Across The South
The invasion is already underway: 17-year cicadas have been spotted in a few Southern states in the midst of warm spring weather.
Known as Brood XIV, this particular population of loud, buzzing insects hasn't been around since 2008. Brood XIV is the second largest periodical cicada brood behind the Great Southern Brood that took over much of the South in 2024.
This year's cicadas are expected to emerge in 13 states, according to a report in USA Today. In the South, most of Kentucky will be inundated, as well as the eastern half of Tennessee, southwest West Virginia, and western North Carolina. The northeast tip of Georgia should also be prepared, and a few counties in Virginia and the DC area will likely see (or hear) Brood XIV as well.
So far, the largest number of sightings (more than 1,300) have occurred in the mountains of western North Carolina. Tennessee and Kentucky have each had hundreds of reports, which are posted on a map generated from the Cicada Safari mobile app.
Scientists project the noisy insects will be mostly gone by July.
'It takes about two full weeks for the great bulk of the cicadas to come out,' Gene Kritsky, a professor at Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati, told USA Today. '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.'
They'll leave behind eggs in the trees that hatch later in the summer. The new nymphs will drop to the ground, bury themselves, and disappear until 2042.
Read the original article on Southern Living
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