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USA Today
2 days ago
- Climate
- USA Today
Cicadas invade parts of US as Brood XIV emerges: See photos
Cicadas invade parts of US as Brood XIV emerges: See photos After 17 years of dormancy, cicadas from Brood XIV are back and invading parts of the U.S. this spring. Show Caption Hide Caption Millions of cicadas expected in Georgia More cicadas than usual are expected again in Georgia this year when Brood 14 of the 17-year-periodical cicadas emerge. Fox - 5 Atlanta Cicadas are invading the U.S. as Brood XIV continues to make their way to over a dozen U.S. states. Brood XIV, the second-largest of periodical cicada broods, began emerging in the spring with most of the buzzing and clicking being heard in western North Carolina, southern Kentucky and parts of Tennessee. Gene Kritsky, a professor at Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati, told USA TODAY that the sightings are expected to occur in 13 U.S. states this year. Since early May, sightings in the Asheville, North Carolina area have risen from 140 to 739, according to Kristsky's group, Cicada Safari, which crowdsources and reviews data on the insects. Brood XIV emerges every 17 years, meaning the last time they came around was when former President George W. Bush was in office and the average price of eggs was only $1.99. The cicada brood usually knows it's time to emerge when the ground temperature reaches about 64 degrees, 8 inches below the surface. With cicadas flying around the U.S., pictures of the photogenic creatures have popped up. See the insects as they enjoy their time in the sun. See cicadas from Brood XIV invade the US Contributing: Anthony Robledo, Saleen Martin, Elizabeth Weise & Janet Loehrke/ USA TODAY Jonathan Limehouse covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at JLimehouse@
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
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
USA Today
10-05-2025
- Science
- USA Today
Cicada map 2025: New sightings of Brood XIV class seen in multiple states after 17 years
Cicada map 2025: New sightings of Brood XIV class seen in multiple states after 17 years Spring is in full gear with warmer temperatures, rainy weather and of course, the arrival of one of the nosiest insects. Neighborhoods in the eastern half of the United States have already begun hearing buzzing and clicking as cicadas make their 2025 debut. While a nuisance to some, the bugs' presence marks a rare occurrence as the Brood XIV class is emerging for the first time since 2008. The second largest periodical cicada brood appears every 17 years. Sightings are expected to occur in 13 U.S. states this year, Gene Kritsky, a professor at Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati, told USA TODAY. Since last week, sightings in the Asheville, North Carolina, area have risen from 140 to 739, according to Kristsky's group, Cicada Safari, which crowdsources and reviews data on the insects. Here's what you need to know about Brood XIV, including whether cicadas will buzz in your area this year. Where have cicadas started to emerge? So far, most of the cicadas added to this year's Cicada Safari map are in western North Carolina, southern Kentucky and parts of Tennessee. As of May 9, cicadas have been reported in the following areas: Asheville-area, North Carolina - Around 700 sightings West of Knoxville, Tennessee - Around 90 sightings Nashville-area, Tennessee - Around 30 sightings Memphis, Tennessee area - 2 sightings Southern Kentucky - Around 160 sightings Western West Virginia - Around 40 sightings Cincinnati, Ohio area - Around 10 sightings Georgia - Around 10 sightings Northern Virginia - 1 sighting Trenton, New Jersey - 1 sighting Baltimore, Maryland - 1 sighting To keep track of cicada sightings, download the Cicada Safari mobile app, visit or Which brood of cicadas is emerging in 2025? This spring, residents can expect to see cicadas from Brood XIV, or periodical cicadas that emerge every 17 years. It's considered to be among the largest periodical cicada broods along with Brood XIX, which emerged in 2024, according to the University of Connecticut. Which states are expecting cicadas? States expecting cicadas this year include Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia, Kritsky said. Kentucky and Tennessee probably will get the most cicadas this year, said John Cooley, an ecology and biology associate professor in residence at the University of Connecticut. There will also be large numbers in Georgia, the Carolinas and Pennsylvania, he said. How long will cicadas stick around? Cicadas, which are called nymphs in their immature stage, don't all emerge in one night, Kritsky said. '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.' The nymphs first make their way out of the ground, then crawl up a tree or an upright surface, Kritsky said. They then lock their claws onto the surface they've chosen. According to Cooley, come July, there will hardly be any sign of cicadas minus the holes in the ground and the eggs in the trees. How does this year's brood compare with last year's? Kritsky said this year's brood, XIV, will be heavy in some areas. The two broods from last year – the 13-year Brood XIX and the 17-year Brood XIII – emerged in more states, however. Another large 17-year brood, Brood X, emerged in 2021 in Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. Can cicadas give me mites? Areas with a high cicadas presence often lure oak leaf itch mites through their eggs, Kritsky said. People may be bitten by mites if they spend time under oak trees six to 10 weeks after the cicadas laid their eggs. 'The eggs start to hatch, but when they hatch, also leaving the egg nests are the mites,' he said. 'They drop out of the egg nests onto people and cause an itching reaction.' The answer to preventing the itching sensation is simple, he said: 'If they start emerging in mid-May, don't sit under the oak tree during the month of July.' Why do cicadas buzz? The buzzing noise associated with cicadas is their version of singing, Cooley said. The males sing three types of songs, engage in duets with the females and then mate, he told USA TODAY. More on the next brood: Are cicadas returning this year? What to know about Brood XIV and where to spot them Is my garden safe with cicadas? Kritsky said people worried about their gardens should not fret. Cicadas don't eat, they drink, he said. They initially feed on grass roots and then later puncture the xylem tissue that carries water to tree leaves. If anything, the only damage cicadas cause is when females lay eggs at the ends of branches, sometimes breaking branches and turning the leaves brown. 'However, that doesn't kill the tree,' he said. 'It actually can be possibly beneficial because it's like a natural pruning. ... The flower next year will be even larger.' How to track cicada sightings Kritsky collects data on cicadas via his Cicada Safari app and website. He encourages parents and guardians to talk to their children about cicadas and try out some of the activities he has listed on his website. Cicada enthusiasts can even talk to their parents and grandparents about cicadas that have emerged over the past few decades. 'If you're lucky enough to live in an area where the cicadas are and you've got kids, take them outside during the night,' he said. 'Let them see this. This is a once-in-a-generation activity. They'll never forget it.' Brood XIV: See the 2025 cicada map This map shows roughly where Brood XIV is expected to make an appearance this spring, however, experts say it can be tricky to know exactly which counties will have confirmed sightings. Contributing: Emily DeLetter
Time Magazine
08-05-2025
- Science
- Time Magazine
After 17 Years Underground, the Cicada Brood XIV Is Coming
The first recorded American sighting of the cicada brood now known as Brood XIV was made by William Bradford, the governor of the Plymouth Colony, in 1634—and he was impressed by what he beheld. 'There was such a quantity of a great sort of flies like for bigness to wasps or bumblebees,' he wrote in his journal, 'and soon made such a constant yelling noise…as ready to deaf the hearers.' Bradford and the rest of the colonists were not deafened for long. As it has done every 17 years since, Brood XIV died off just six or so weeks after it emerged, but not before laying billions of eggs that would make their appearance as adults another 17 years later—and so on down the centuries. In late April of this year, the brood began making its second 21st century appearance, when the first of the invaders appeared in Tennessee and North Carolina, preparatory to a 15-state sweep that will also include Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Virginia—before they vanish again in mid- to late-June. There's no overstating just how many of the bugs there will be. On average, about 1.5 million cicadas occupy every acre of tree-covered land during an emergence, according to Gene Kritsky, professor emeritus of biology at Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati, Ohio, and author of The Pilgrims' Promise: The 2025 Emergence of the Periodical Cicada Brood XIV. The southeast U.S. alone covers 371 million acres —which makes for some formidable math. Here's what else you need to know about the upcoming visitation. Brood XIV is not alone If you're a cicada fancier, you could be forgiven for being confused about the insects' 17-year cycle, because cicadas can appear at much shorter intervals—even annually. That's because there are actually 15 different broods at large, 12 of them observing a 17-year schedule and three making their appearance every 13 years—and the broods' emergences are staggered. It was in 1902 that entomologist Charles Marlatt developed the nomenclature scheme used to identify different appearances, with the 17-year cicada variety designated Broods I through XVII, and their 13-year cousins Broods XVIII through XXX. Distinguishing one 17- or 13-year brood from another is not hard, because each one has a different geographical footprint, with little overlap among them. 'They don't occur uniformly over all parts [of the U.S.],' says Kritsky. 'They do occur in certain areas, in certain pockets.' Entomologists had another way too to determine that each brood is unique to its own turf. During the adults' six weeks of life, the females will make small cuts in the ends of tree branches and deposit their eggs there. The eggs incubate for six to 10 weeks before hatching into nymphs, which fall to the ground, burrow beneath the surface, and clamp their mouth parts onto a rootlet, from which they will feed for their long subterranean stay. When they emerge, they evacuate the underground en masse. 'When you go into an area where they're emerging and you dig into the ground, you don't find anything there. They're all out,' says John Cooley, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Connecticut, Hartford. 'If you go back to that same spot in a year, when they're not emerging, and you dig, you're going to find them underground.' Are cicadas pests? That depends on your tolerance for the sight and sound of zillions of winged bugs appearing at once, settling in trees, getting crunched underfoot, and often splooching against your windshield. But apart from that—not really. 'They don't swarm,' says Kritsky. 'That's a misuse of the word. Swarms are usually directed, coordinated movements of individual [insects] in a particular area. They're lousy flyers. They're flying around, but they're really not doing much, just going from tree to tree. They don't carry disease. They don't bite. They won't carry away your pets.' 'In pediatric journals you read about people being harmed by cicadas,' says Cooley. 'But it was always something stupid, like riding down the road on a motorcycle without a helmet and one hits them in the eye.' Cicadas also don't attack crops or gardens or plants—partly because their mouths are adapted only for sucking, not biting or chewing. To the extent that they do any harm to vegetation, it's mostly to young trees, whose branches may weaken and break due to the cuts the females make to deposit their eggs. If you have young trees or maturing orchards, both Kritsky and Cooley say, it pays to cover them with avian netting—which is used as protection against birds and can be found in hardware and garden stores. Whatever you do, don't even think about using pesticides to rid your yard or field of cicadas. 'You can't spray enough insecticide to deal with this,' says Cooley. 'And if you try to spray that much, you're going to kill everything in sight. So if they don't do any harm, do they do any good? Yes. A lot, actually. Cicadas benefit the environment in a number of ways. First, in emerging from the ground they leave open tunnels about as big around as a pinky, which can persist until December. That aerates the soil and provides entry points for rainwater, which nourishes tree roots. They also serve as a ready food source for birds and other predators such as cats, dogs, chipmunks, and squirrels. The bugs are harmless if eaten by pets, though Cooley warns that dogs—being dogs—may gorge on them beyond what's best for them, with all that roughage resulting in a constipated canine. Either way, most cicada predators enjoy the feast. 'The pulse of nutrition allows for more offspring,' says Kritsky. 'I've also heard reports that the body weight of male turkeys taken during hunting season was larger in areas where cicadas emerged than in areas where there weren't cicadas.' Even the damage cicadas do to tree branches pays some dividends, serving as a healthy, natural pruning. 'It looks unsightly this year, says Kritsky, 'but the reports are that the flower sets for those trees the next year will be even greater.' Finally, death becomes cicadas, with their uncounted little bodies providing nutrients for the soil and trees. 'Below ground they're collecting nitrogen, phosphorus, and other nutrients,' says Cooley. 'Then they come above ground and they're recycling the nutrients.' The downside to so much decomposition? 'They stink to high heaven,' says Kritsky. 'Its a sense memory—if you've never smelled it, look for it this year.' How are cicadas faring in a warming world? Cicadas are 'insects of climate,' as Kritsky calls them. The genus to which they belong emerged about 3.9 million years ago, and the insects moved alternately north and south in response to the advance and retreat of glaciers. Today they are responding to the climate again, changing the timing of their emergence, which usually begins when the soil temperature reaches 64°F. Those warmer conditions are occurring earlier and earlier each year. 'Before 1940 here in Cincinnati,' Kritsky says, 'the average date of emergence was May 28 or 29. Right now they're emerging two to two and a half weeks earlier.' Increasingly, the appearance of cicada broods is being tracked by citizen scientists armed with mobile phones and the Cicada Safari app, which Kritsky and Mount St. Joseph University created. In the 1840s, Maryland physician Gideon Smith took a shine to cicada tracking and began crowd-sourcing sightings, writing to newspapers and asking locals to contact him with reports of the emergence of new cicada swarms. Things moved slowly in that analog era, but they've picked up considerably today. People who download Cicada Safari are asked to send pictures of the cicadas they spot to the site; once the images are confirmed, they add to the real-time growth of a map of cicada emergence. 'Back in 2021, when Brood X emerged,' Kritsky says, 'we received over half a million photographs. We verified them to produce the most granular, widespread map of that brood.' However many cicadas emerge this year, they will be parlaying their 17 years in the nymph state and their six weeks in the adult state to do just one principal thing: mate and ensure the appearance of the next brood, in 2042. 'Their function,' says Cooley, 'is to make more of themselves. And this is how they do it.'
New York Post
07-05-2025
- Science
- New York Post
‘Screaming' trees spread across US as cicada brood emerges after 17 years
Cicadas of Brood XIV have begun to emerge this spring, starting in the Southeast and making their way to the Northeast. Brood XIV is a cohort of periodical cicadas, in which each succeeding generation of the insects emerges every 17 years. They emerge when soil temperatures reach 64 to 65 degrees, which cues the insects to burrow to the surface. This year, soil temperatures were such that the first batch of Brood XIV cicadas began emerging in northern Georgia around the last week of April, according to Gene Kritsky, Professor Emeritus of Biology at Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati and founder of the cicada database app Cicada Safari. Soon after, cicadas began emerging in areas such as Nashville and Knoxville, Tennessee, with several hundred confirmed in Asheville, North Carolina. 'Asheville is just bursting with them right now,' Kritsky said. A few cicadas have been reported in parts of the Ohio River Basin, such as Louisville, Kentucky. Preliminary reports have already come in from as far north as Cape Cod in Massachusetts. Just getting started As the warm temperatures of spring continue to spread northward, more cicadas are due to emerge. 4 This year, soil temperatures were such that the first batch of Brood XIV cicadas began emerging in northern Georgia around the last week of April. Cicada Safari Kritsky forecast the emergence of Brood XIV by location, using a meteorological model he developed while researching potato farming. Much like potatoes, cicadas grow underground and at a depth of about 4-6 inches. This method has allowed Kritsky to predict when cicadas will emerge with 90% accuracy, he said. Here is when some states are expected to see the emergence of Brood XIV this year: Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Pennsylvania – Second week of May. Massachusetts – Late May. 'Screaming' trees 4 Cicadas began to emerge in areas such as Nashville and Knoxville, Tennessee, with several hundred confirmed in Asheville, North Carolina. Cicada Safari Once out of the ground, the male cicadas of Brood XIV will take up shop in nearby trees and produce their iconic loud buzzing sounds to attract females. 'The trees will just be screaming with all these males singing,' Kritsky said to FOX Weather. 'I have measured the intensity – the highest I've ever measured is 102 decibels. Commonly, you'll see them coming in at 90 decibels. That's louder than the planes landing at Dulles.' After mating, the female cicadas lay their eggs in the trees. As the adults die off, the eggs hatch, and cicada nymphs are born. The nymphs – the next generation of Brood XIV – then drop to the ground and burrow their way into the soil, where they will feed off the roots of trees and grass for the next 17 years. Brood XIV is one of 15 known cicada broods, Kritsky said. He noted that 12 of the broods follow a 17-year cycle, whereas three follow the 13-year cycle. Deforestation impacting cicadas 4 Montreal-based audio artist Alex Lane records cicada mating calls from a tree at Lincoln Memorial Garden and Nature Center in Springfield, Illinois, on June 3, 2024. TNS There are certain factors that can impact the cycles of cicada broods. One of which involves the removal of forests, as the cicadas need trees to survive, be it as part of their mating ritual or as their food source while they are underground. 'As we remove our forests, we are also removing cicadas,' Kritsky said, noting that the cicada distribution in the U.S. is patchy due to land use and deforestation. This can also apply to Mother Nature removing trees. Historic flooding caused by Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina, where cicadas from Brood XIV are supposed to emerge this year, uprooted countless trees and wiped out large areas of forest last fall. Whether the cicada emergence in the Tarheel State will be affected is yet to be seen. 'In the past, if the tree hasn't been totally uprooted, that means the cicadas will very likely be fine,' Kritsky said. 'But if the tree has been blown over, uprooted, that's going to destroy a lot of cicadas.' 4 As the warm temperatures of spring continue to spread northward, more cicadas are due to emerge, according to reports. AFP via Getty Images To help record the distribution of the cicadas, Kritsky said people can note their observations in the free app Cicada Safari. The information, along with cicada photos, that people provide will help with research about cicadas.
