Expect a pretty quiet summer in Iowa, at least as far as cicadas are concerned.
Some of the big, loud bugs will emerge, as they do every year. But there will be no large broods to cause a noisy infestation here.
Other parts of the country won t be so lucky. With one of the biggest broods of periodical cicadas, the Great Eastern Brood (Brood X), emerging after 17 years underground, billions of the bugs will fill skies and cover trees in Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Ohio, and eastern Tennessee, according to the U.S. Forest Service.
While Brood X awakens, the main colony of cicadas that takes over Iowa every 17 years remains asleep.
Cicada forecast: Expect insects to emerge in early to mid-May
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Billions of bugs: Meet the cicada chasers trailing Brood X
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Billions of bugs: Meet the cicada chasers trailing Brood X CNET 2 hrs ago © Alex Wong/Getty Images
The red-eyed bugs of Brood X, which will soon emerge by the millions. The cicada chasers are ready.
For Dan Mozgai, a marketing professional from New Jersey, the perfect vacation involves insects. Lots and lots of insects.
They can t be just any random bugs, though. They have to be periodical cicadas.
The critters spend almost their whole lives underground, living on sap from tree roots. Then, in the spring of their 13th or 17th year, depending on the brood, they tunnel out, synchronously and in huge numbers, for a short adult mating frenzy set to the sonorous sound track of the males come-hither calls.
Could those holes in your yard be Brood X cicada mounds? Here s what to look for Sarah Brookbank, Cincinnati Enquirer
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People in Greater Cincinnati could be seeing the first signs of Brood X.
Cicadas will come crawling from their homes in the ground over a two-week period after the soil temperature has reached 64 degrees.
Gene Kritsky, a leading cicada expert and entomologist at Mount St. Joseph University, said Greater Cincinnati typically sees emergence in mid-May after two days in a row with temperatures above 80 degrees and there s been a soaking rain. © Mike Fender/IndyStar This undated handout image obtained 15 April, 2004 courtesy of the University of Nebraska Entomology Department shows emergence holes of the Periodical Cicada (Magicicada septendecim). Brood X of the 17 year cycle are due to emerge in May, with billions of cicadas expected to surface simultaneously in and around the Washington, DC area. Brood X cicadas will also e