Cicadas emerge across South, East Coast as billions of bugs create ‘screaming’ trees

Cicadas of Brood XIV have begun to emerge this spring, starting in the Southeast and making their way to the Northeast.

Brood XIV is a cohort of periodical cicadas, in which each succeeding generation of the insects emerges every 17 years. They emerge when soil temperatures reach 64 to 65 degrees, which cues the insects to burrow to the surface.

This year, soil temperatures were such that the first batch of Brood XIV cicadas began emerging in northern Georgia around the last week of April, according to Gene Kritsky, Professor Emeritus of Biology at Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati and founder of the cicada database app Cicada Safari.

Soon after, cicadas began emerging in areas such as Nashville and Knoxville, Tennessee, with several hundred confirmed in Asheville, North Carolina.

"Asheville is just bursting with them right now," Kritsky said.

A few cicadas have been reported in parts of the Ohio River Basin, such as Louisville, Kentucky.

Preliminary reports have already come in from as far north as Cape Cod in Massachusetts.

Just getting started

As the warm temperatures of spring continue to spread northward, more cicadas are due to emerge.

Kritsky forecast the emergence of Brood XIV by location, using a meteorological model he developed while researching potato farming. Much like potatoes, cicadas grow underground and at a depth of about 4-6 inches.

This method has allowed Kritsky to predict when cicadas will emerge with 90% accuracy, he said. 

Here is when some states are expected to see the emergence of Brood XIV this year:

• Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Pennsylvania - Second week of May.
• Massachusetts - Late May.

‘Screaming’ trees

Once out of the ground, the male cicadas of Brood XIV will take up shop in nearby trees and produce their iconic loud buzzing sounds to attract females.

"The trees will just be screaming with all these males singing," Kritsky said to FOX Weather. "I have measured the intensity – the highest I’ve ever measured is 102 decibels. Commonly, you’ll see them coming in at 90 decibels. That’s louder than the planes landing at Dulles."

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After mating, the female cicadas lay their eggs in the trees. As the adults die off, the eggs hatch and cicada nymphs are born. The nymphs – the next generation of Brood XIV – then drop to the ground and burrow their way into the soil, where they will feed off the roots of trees and grass for the next 17 years.

Brood XIV is one of 15 known cicada broods, Kritsky said. He noted that 12 of the broods follow a 17-year cycle, whereas three follow the 13-year cycle.

Deforestation impacting cicadas

There are certain factors that can impact the cycles of cicada broods.

One of which involves the removal of forests, as the cicadas need trees to survive – be it as part of their mating ritual or as their food source while they are underground.

"As we remove our forests, we are also removing cicadas," Kritsky said, noting that the cicada distribution in the U.S. is patchy due to land use and deforestation.

This can also apply to Mother Nature removing trees. 

Historic flooding caused by Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina, where cicadas from Brood XIV are supposed to emerge this year, uprooted countless trees and wiped out large areas of forest last fall.

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Whether the cicada emergence in the Tarheel State will be affected is yet to be seen.

"In the past, if the tree hasn’t been totally uprooted, that means the cicadas will very likely be fine," Kritsky said. "But if the tree has been blown over, uprooted, that’s going to destroy a lot of cicadas."

To help record the distribution of the cicadas, Kritsky said people can note their observations in the free app Cicada Safari. The information, along with cicada photos, people provide will help with research about cicadas.