{"id":14520,"date":"2024-04-09T06:42:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-09T12:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shieldagency.com\/blog\/?p=14520"},"modified":"2024-04-01T15:18:05","modified_gmt":"2024-04-01T21:18:05","slug":"invaders-from-underground-are-coming-in-cicada-geddon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shieldagency.com\/blog\/invaders-from-underground-are-coming-in-cicada-geddon\/","title":{"rendered":"Invaders from underground are coming in cicada-geddon."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WTOP News<\/a> | Cicada | Home Insurance<\/a> | Visit the Shield Insurance Quoting portal<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The largest geographic brood in the nation \u2014 called Brood XIX<\/a> and coming out every 13 years \u2014 is about to march through the Southeast, having already created countless boreholes in the red Georgia clay. It\u2019s a sure sign of the coming cicada occupation. They emerge when the ground warms to 64 degrees (17.8 degrees Celsius), which is happening earlier than it used to because of climate change<\/a>, entomologists said. The bugs are brown at first but darken as they mature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon after the insects appear in large numbers in Georgia and the rest of the Southeast, cicada cousins that come out every 17 years will inundate Illinois. They are Brood XIII.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got one very widely distributed brood in Brood XIX, but you have a very dense historically abundant brood in the Midwest, your Brood XIII,\u201d said University of Maryland entomologist Mike Raupp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd when you put those two together\u2026 you would have more than anywhere else any other time,\u201d University of Maryland entomologist Paula Shrewsbury said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cicada found in the Eastern US<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

These hideaway cicadas are found only in the eastern United States and a few tiny other places. There are 15 different broods that come out every few years<\/a>, on 17- and 13-year cycles. These two broods may actually overlap \u2014 but probably not interbreed \u2014 in a small area near central Illinois, entomologists said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trillions of evolution\u2019s bizarro wonders, red-eyed periodical cicadas that have pumps in their heads and jet-like muscles in their rears, are about to emerge in numbers not seen in decades and possibly centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crawling out from underground every 13 or 17 years, with a collective song as loud as jet engines, the periodical cicadas are nature\u2019s kings of the calendar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These black bugs with bulging eyes differ from their greener-tinged cousins that come out annually. They stay buried year after year, until they surface and take over a landscape, covering houses with shed exoskeletons and making the ground crunchy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cicada Geddon begins in the Spring<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This spring, an unusual double dose is about to invade a couple parts of the United States in what University of Connecticut cicada expert John Cooley called \u201ccicada-geddon.\u201d The last time these two broods came out together in 1803 Thomas Jefferson, who wrote about cicadas in his Garden Book but mistakenly called them locusts, was president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeriodic cicadas don\u2019t do subtle,\u201d Cooley said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re fascinated by the upcoming\u00a0solar eclipse,<\/a>\u00a0thy are weirder and bigger, said Georgia Tech biophysicist Saad Bhamla.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got trillions of these amazing living organisms come out of the Earth, climb up on trees and it\u2019s just a unique experience, a sight to behold,\u201d Bhamla said. \u201cIt\u2019s like an entire alien species living underneath our feet and then some prime number years they come out to say hello.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cicada or Voracious?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

At times mistaken for voracious and unrelated locusts, periodical cicadas are more annoying rather than causing biblical economic damage. They can hurt young trees and some fruit crops, but it\u2019s not widespread and can be prevented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The largest geographic brood in the nation \u2014 called Brood XIX<\/a> and coming out every 13 years \u2014 is about to march through the Southeast, having already created countless boreholes in the red Georgia clay. It\u2019s a sure sign of the coming cicada occupation. They emerge when the ground warms to 64 degrees (17.8 degrees Celsius), which is happening earlier than it used to because of climate change<\/a>, entomologists said. The bugs are brown at first but darken as they mature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon after the insects appear in large numbers in Georgia and the rest of the Southeast, cicada cousins that come out every 17 years will inundate Illinois. They are Brood XIII.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got one very widely distributed brood in Brood XIX, but you have a very dense historically abundant brood in the Midwest, your Brood XIII,\u201d said University of Maryland entomologist Mike Raupp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd when you put those two together\u2026 you would have more than anywhere else any other time,\u201d University of Maryland entomologist Paula Shrewsbury said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These hideaway cicadas are found only in the eastern United States and a few tiny other places. There are 15 different broods that come out every few years<\/a>, on 17- and 13-year cycles. These two broods may actually overlap \u2014 but probably not interbreed \u2014 in a small area near central Illinois, entomologists said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here for the full story…<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

More Blogs by Shield Insurance Agency<\/h2>\n\n\n