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As if we haven't had enough of plagues, this spring brings the 17-year Brood X, a massive sleeper cell of cicadas soon to emerge from their underground lairs. Billions — yes, billions — of the bugs will scratch their way to earth's surface to screech their mating calls, copulate and lay eggs throughout much of the Eastern half of the U.S. Their appearance is expected sometime in May — as soon as the ground gets above 64 degrees — and lasts for four to six weeks.
Brood X, which last appeared in 2004, consists of large patches of insects in some 15 states in the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest and Washington, D.C., including parts of New Jersey, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan and as far south as Georgia. These are periodical cicadas, which arise around the country every 13 or 17 years, depending on their brood — categorized with numbers (X stands for 10) based on their life cycles and geographic regions.
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Annual cicadas are different: Greenish colored, they emerge in much smaller numbers every year from June to September, and are more lively. Periodical cicadas, meanwhile, are black, about 1 to 2 inches long, with horror-film-ready red-orange eyes, and sluggish after their epic naps.
Their emergence is one of nature's wildest shows, and those in its midst tend to find it either endlessly fascinating or positively horrifying.
What to expect during a periodical cicada emergence
Cicadas have been around for 250 million years, through all parts of the world, succeeding with their sole goal: Procreation — something that's essentially true of all creatures, but very pointedly so for these single-minded bugs. The ritual begins with the cicada nymphs crawling from the ground; they “know” to emerge by counting the annual cycles of the vegetation that they feed upon underground, says John Cooley, a cicada expert and professor in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology department at University of Connecticut.
They immediately climb the nearest vertical structure, usually a tree, where they shed their exoskeleton. That's when their wings start to plump up and their soft, exposed body begins to harden.
Males sing their shrill but seductive (if you're a female cicada) song, buggy sex occurs, and females then lay their eggs in small holes bored into twigs.
These large emergences provide an epic feast for squirrels, birds and other creatures, including dogs and cats. They're also a novelty ingredient for more than a few humans, who've compared their flavor to shrimp.
The Brood Xers that aren't eaten up by ravenous animals will die naturally, leaving their offspring to eventually fall to earth and burrow in, feeding on tree roots until 2038.
