Posted on 01/22/2024 9:44:58 AM PST by Red Badger
It’s official: 2024 belongs to the cicadas.
This spring, two different broods of cicadas — one that lives on a 13-year cycle and the other that lives on a 17-year cycle — will emerge at the same time from underground in a rare, synchronized event that last occurred in 1803.
Billions of the winged insects will make an appearance across the Midwest and the Southeast, beginning in some places in late April, for a raucous mating ritual that tends to inspire fascination and annoyance in equal measure.
This year’s dual emergence is a once-in-a-lifetime event. While any given 13-year brood and 17-year brood can occasionally emerge at the same time, each specific pair will see their cycles aligned only once every 221 years. What’s more, this year’s cicada groups, known as Brood XIII and Brood XIX, happened to make their homes adjacent to one another, with a narrow overlap in central Illinois.
“Thomas Jefferson was president the last time these two broods came out, so is it rare? Yes,” said Gene Kritsky, an entomologist at Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati and author of “A Tale of Two Broods,” a book about this year’s dual emergence that was published earlier this month.
After 2024, Brood XIII and Brood XIX cicadas won’t sync up their emergences again for another 221 years.
These types of cicadas are periodical insects that spend most of their lives underground feeding on tree roots. After 13 years or 17 years, depending on their brood, the cicadas will tunnel to the surface to reach maturity and engage in a monthlong, noisy search for a mate.
Cicadas typically surface in the spring once soil reaches a temperature of around 64 degrees Fahrenheit.
The blue map dots denote Brood XIII cicadas and the red dots are areas where Brood XIX has emerged in the past. These areas will likely have periodical cicadas in 2024.Cicada Safari
Brood XIII cicadas appear in the Midwest, mostly centered in Illinois but also stretching into Wisconsin, Ohio and Iowa. Brood XIX cicadas have been spotted over a much larger geographic area that includes Missouri, Illinois, Louisiana, North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland.
When these insects emerge, they do so in big numbers. And they're not exactly quiet in their mating frenzy.
The insects are known to emit a high-pitched buzz, or mating song, that can reach up to 100 decibels — roughly equivalent to a motorcycle or jackhammer.
You watch: if someone figures out how to make cicades genuinely edible and tasty, no one will be able to collect or breed them. The state will make them the State’s Cicadas and you’ll need special permits to even touch the things. Heaven help you if you want to build on land some apparatchik says a cycle emerges from.
Enjoy your free-range cicadas now! One day, folks will only be able to buy processed cicada meal from WEF-approved producers and Karens will narc on anyone collecting them in the wild! 🤣
If they take a good look around they’ll go underground again.
I remember there was a Reds game years ago at Riverfront Stadium and the cicadas were wreaking havoc there.
Yup, good old tinnitus. I’m in the same boat. These bugs won’t bother me in the least!
Pickle enough of them to last the seven years of famine ahead.
Are these those scary looking red-eyed ones. Saw them on Staten Island one year. Damn! Straight out of a horror film.
Yes, depends on species though.....
They are edible although I would pass on it. Dogs love them.
"When I was little, people referred to the cicadas as locusts."
so, wheres the money to be made here?
Locusts are still what people call them, I have never heard a person choose the word cicada when just talking and not referencing a news report or article.
They do say it is a good resource for animal feed
How about a vanilla cicada milkshake?
People will buy anything on a stick with lots of garlic...................
After the bugs have voted Democrat.
I never thought about collecting them, but they were on every bush and tree branch.
I’d wear gloves, because the disgusting things pee all the time.
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