Massive Brood Of Cicadas Expected In Southwestern Pennsylvania In Just Weeks

[yortsed snacilbuper]

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – Get ready, a massive swarm is coming in just weeks.
The 17-year cicadas are coming again, millions of them, with their unnerving red eyes, orange wings and cacophonous mating song that can drown out the noise of passing jet planes.

“They will wait until the temperature of the soil is roughly 64 degrees,” he says. “So in the past that has been mid-May and they’ll be out all through June.”

Experts say that a large brood of cicadas is expected to emerge from the ground this spring after 17-years, and Southwestern Pennsylvania will be right in the center of it.

“In some areas, you can get as many as a million and a half individuals per acre, when they’re really dense,” Bob Davidson, invertebrate zoology collection manager for the Carnegie Museum of Natural History says. “The brood that is coming out this year has all three species of periodical cicadas.”

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[leftyladyfrommo]

1. Don't let your dogs eat them.

Their crunchy shells cause major stomach problems.

[yortsed snacilbuper]

4. Thanks,

I'll warn my neighbor, her dog will eat anything!

[leftyladyfrommo]

5. And cats, too.

We had a major outbreak a few years ago. It was very strange. They had bright red eyes. Our normal summer ones don't look the same.

[spinbaby]

2. But we just had them 3 years ago

I’m in Washington, PA and we had a major batch of cicadas in 2016. Isn’t it supposed to be 17 years until the next batch?

[yortsed snacilbuper]

3. The last time we saw the insects was in 2016,

when Brood V emerged. Brood V cicadas are mostly concentrated in Ohio and West Virginia, but Southwestern Pennsylvania is on the edge of the swarm.

https://triblive.com/news/pennsylvania/pennsylvania-is-home-to-5-cicada-broods/

[Doremus]

11. This was our last experience with them.

What was different this time than years past is the huge numbers of seagulls that encamped in the area to take advantage of the bounty. They were quite adept at catching them mid-flight as the cicadas flew from tree to tree.

Cicada years are always nostalgic, remembering where we were/how old the kids were/etc the last time they came around.

[yortsed snacilbuper]

13. I was at Cheat Lake once when the Cicada's were swarming,

the Catfish were so gorged you could just reach into the water and grab them!

[Recursion]

7. There are multiple broods with different cycles, but all are a prime number of years

I've just always found that cool: there are 7, 11, 13, and 17 year cicada broods. Always a prime number.

Gould explains it here.

[Recursion]

6. Is this BROOD X? Or is that next year? (nt)

[Demovictory9]

8. ugh.

[displacedtexan]

9. Waded through them in Baltimore in 2004.

They were so freaking loud! The worst was at a friend's house in Catonsville. It took 10 minutes to "skate" from the car to the front door because we didn't want to crush them.

[java108]

10. I remember driving through one of the Cleveland Metroparks in 2016,

and the din was so loud from the cicadas, I thought my serpentine belt was broken.

[smirkymonkey]

12. Ugh! That would freak me out!

I HATE insects! How do people put up with it? I wouldn't be able to leave the house.