(NewsNation) — 2024 is projected to be a year of another cicada emergence.
According to Cicada Mania, the next major emergence of the periodical cicada brood, known as Brood XIX, will begin in mid-May and end in late June. They’re expected to emerge across parts of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.
The last time Brood XIX emerged was in 2011, per Cicada Mania.
Dr. Gene Kritsky, one of the world’s leading experts in cicadas, said another brood expected in the last spring and early summer of 2024 is Brood XIII. These cicadas are expected to emerge across parts of Illinois and Indiana.
According to an article from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champagne Extension, the northern Illinois brood’s emergence typically lasts approximately four weeks. While they’re mostly harmless, the noise of the insects can be disruptive, the university said. However, eggs from adult cicadas on twigs and shoots could cause “substantial damage” in newly planted orchards.
According to Kritsky’s website cicadasafari.org, it’s rare to have a dual emergence between Broods XIX and XIII — an occurrence that only happens every 221 years.
Kritsky reports the last time these two broods emerged together was in 1803 when Thomas Jefferson was president of the United States, and Lewis and Clark started their exploration of the Louisiana Purchase.
