Billions of Brood X cicadas set to emerge in spring 2021

Becky1951

🌹
Location
Tennessee
I like hearing them if far away. :LOL: There is a map at the site showing where they will be emerging.

Starting sometime this month or next (April-May 2021), billions of cicadas will emerge, after 17 years underground, in a dozen U.S. states, from New York west to Illinois and south into northern Georgia, including hot spots in Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. This group of cicadas, known as Brood X (as in the Roman numeral 10) is among the geographically largest of all 17-year periodical cicadas.

When exactly will the Brood X cicadas emerge? The timing of their appearance varies by location, said West Virginia University biologist Matt Kasson. He told the New York Times:

They are ready but waiting for the soil to be warm enough. The ideal soil temperature for cicadas is about 64 degrees. For the Mid-Atlantic region, that usually comes by about the third week of May, but it could be sooner. Usually, you have stragglers on either side.

For about four to six weeks after the cicadas emerge, woods and neighborhoods will ring with their buzzing mating calls. After the cicadas mate, each female will lay hundreds of eggs in thin tree branches. Then the adult cicadas will die. When the eggs hatch, new cicada nymphs (cicadas before they’re fully grown) will fall from the trees and burrow back underground, starting the 17-year cycle again.

The cicadas won’t hurt you. They don’t sting and they’re not venomous. Cicadas get a bad rap because they remind people of the biblical plagues of locusts (a different insect) that would eat entire crop fields. But the cicadas set to emerge this spring in the United States are harmless to humans and won’t wipe out fields or gardens.

https://earthsky.org/earth/17-year-cicadas-broodx-2021
 

In May of 2012, We were driving south on I-81 in VA and kept hearing an occasional chirp, squeal type noise....
The further we went, the worse it became... until its a constant squealing that wakes my brother in the back seat.
So we start discussing possible issues, fan belt or bearing?
Rolling along at 65 MPH put the truck in neutral and shut it off....
Still squealing... OH CRAP.... A wheel bearing....
Approaching Buchanan VA., we coast to a stop at the exit AND THE NOISE CONTINUED....
Now I'm thinking a blown hose, but no steam and wasn't running hot....
So here stands the 3 of us, looking under the hood and realize...
THE SOUND IS COMMING FROM ALL AROUND US.....
Cicadas were loud enough inside a closed truck driving 70 MPH to make us think sometime was wrong....
And there supposed to be worse this year?????
 

Back
Top