The arrival of warm spring temperatures also means the arrival of the cicadas, which is expected to begin to fill the air with their iconic buzzing as soon as next week in some parts of the United States.
The cicadas that emerge this year are part of Braad XIV, a periodic cohort or cicadas of 17 years scattered through parts of the southeast and northwest, according to Gene Kritsky, Professor Emeritus or Bouncinnati University.
Having been buried for 17 years, the cicadas of the XIV breeding will begin to dig to the surface when the soil temperature increases at 64-65 degrees.
This means that some Americans can begin to see the cicadas starting next week, Kritsky said. From there, insects will arise towards the north, as spring progresses and warm temperatures reach those areas the following weeks.
“It’s like this rolling emergency that happens,” Kristky said. He pointed out that insects in any specific area do not emerge in one day. Rather, they take about two weeks to climb to the surface.
Here is the timeline when the cicadas are expected to emerge:
- Northern Georgia – Third week or April.
- Tennessee, North Carolina – Fourth week or April.
- Kentucky – First week of May.
- Ohio, Virginia Occidental, Virginia, Pennsylvania – Second week of May.
- Massachusetts – End of May.
Once out of the ground, the male cicadas of Breead XIV will take the store in nearby trees and produce their iconic buzzing sounds to attract females.
“The trees will only shout with all these males singing,” Kritsky told Fox Weather. “I have measured the intensity: the top I have measured is 102 decibels. Commonly, you will see them entering 90 decibels. That is stronger than the planes that land in Dulles.”
After mating, female cicadras put their eggs in the trees. As adults go to the nymphs of the hatching of eggs and cicadas. The nymphs, the next generation of bread XIV, then fall to the ground and make their way to the ground, where they will feed on the roots of the trees and the grass for the next 17 years.
Bret XIV is one of the 15 known cicada offspring, Kritsky said. He pointed out that 12 of the offspring follow a 17 -year cycle, the three follow the 13 -year cycle.
However, there are certain factors that can affect the cycles of cicada’s young.
One of which implies the elimination of forests, since cicadas need trees to survive, either as part of their mating ritual or as their food source while they are underground.
“As we remove our forests, we are also eliminating cicadas,” Kritsky said, and pointed out that the distribution of the cicada in the US is irregular due to the use of land and deforestation.
This can also be applied to Mother Nature having a hand to eliminate trees.
For example, the historical floods caused by Helene in western North Carolina, where the cicadas of the XIV breeding arise this year, uproot innumerable trees and eliminate large areas of the forest the past fall.
The emergency of the cicada in the state of Tarheel has not yet been seen.
“In the past, if the tree has totally uprooted, that means that cicadas will probably be fine,” Kritsky said. “But if the tree has flown, uprooted, that will destroy many cicadas.”
To help record the distribution of cicadas, Kritsky said people can notice their observations in the free Safari application. The information, together with the cicada photos, people provide will help with research on cicadas.