CBS News
The return of the cicadas
bugs people? Like it or not, here they come! We are going to have the collision of something like maybe four billion, maybe 10 billion, maybe a trillion tiny insects with 30 million human beings, said Mike Raupp. And this is the only place on Planet Earth, even in the universe, that this happens. So, that s what makes this thing so special. CBS News
Raupp has been waiting 17 years for the emergence of the Brood X cicadas in the Eastern U.S., from New York to Indiana to Georgia. He and his wife, Paula Shrewsbury, both Ph.D. entomologists at the University of Maryland, are pretty excited about this.
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University of Maryland entomologist Paula Shrewsbury displays a handful of cicada nymphs found in a shovel of dirt in a suburban backyard in Columbia, Md., on April 13. This is not an invasion. The cicadas have been here the entire time, quietly feeding off tree roots underground, not asleep, just moving slowly waiting for their body clocks tell them it is time to come out and breed. Theyâve been in America for millions of years, far longer than people.
Carolyn Kaster | The Associated Press
A cicada nymph is seen in an emergence tunnel in a shovel of dirt in a suburban backyard in Columbia, Md., on April 13, 2021. America is the only place in the world that has periodic cicadas that stay underground for either 13 or 17 years, says entomologist John Cooley of the University of Connecticut.
THE ANSWER
According to the Nature Conservancy, Brood X will see trillions of periodical cicadas in 15 states, including “parts of Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington, D.C.”
There are 15 broods, or groupings, of periodical cicadas in the eastern United States.
“Twelve of those are 17-year cicadas, and three are 13-year cicadas, but they’re designated by Roman numerals,” according to Dr. Paula Shrewsbury, professor of entomology at the University of Maryland.
THE QUESTION
THE ANSWER
George Washington University Postdoctoral scientist Zoe Getman-Pickering told WUSA’s VERIFY team in April that Brood X cicadas will begin to emerge at night near the beginning of May.