Cicadas to Descend On Northeastern U.S. in May

By FEROZE DHANOA (Patch National Staff)

WILMINGTON, MA - Billions of cicadas are set to descend on the Northeastern United States in May as part of a 17-year-life cycle that began underground in 1999 and will end in May.

The blog Cicada Mania reports the last time the Brood V cicadas emerged was in 1999. The critters begin to surface when the soil eight inches underneath reaches 64 degrees fahrenheit. The blog predicts the cicadas will emerge in May with some possible action in April if the temperatures warm up.

Brood V cicadas measure a little over an inch and a half long and have red eyes and dark bodies.

Parts of the Northeast that would hear the droning mating sound the cicadas make include New York, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. The good news is that the cicadas' main sin is the omnipresent hum of their mating sounds, which can be heard from early morning to late evening.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, adult cicadas live about four to six weeks during which their only purpose is to mate and lay eggs. The eggs then hatch in six weeks and the nymphs then fall to the ground burrowing into the soil and spend the next 17 years feeding on small roots. The nymphs from this batch of cicadas will appear as adults in 2033. Females can lay up to 400 eggs each across 40 to 50 sites, the Washington Post reported.

There are several different broods of cicadas and several types of cicada life cycles so the broods appear in different parts of the country at different times. However, the USDA reports Brood V is the largest.

These cicadas are not capable of biting and the only damage they cause is when the female cuts two parallel slits in small twigs to lay the eggs.

Image via Wikimedia Commons