Rare Cicada Swarm to Hit This Spring

For the first time in 221 years, two distinct broods of cicadas — one following a 13-year life cycle and the other following a 17-year life cycle — will emerge simultaneously this spring, NBC News reported.

Gene Kritsky, an entomologist at Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati and the author of “A Tale of Two Broods,” noted that “Thomas Jefferson was president the last time these two broods came out.”

The rare event, last observed in 1803, will see billions of these insects surfacing across the Midwest and Southeast United States when the soil reaches a relative temperature of 64 degrees Fahrenheit. The emergence is slated to come around late April and will initiate a loud, month-long mating ritual that’s sure to captivate some and irk and disgust others. The heaviest concentrations of these will occur at the northern and southern midpoint of Illinois, with Brood XIX to the north and Brood XIII to the south.

“I’ve talked to half a dozen people already who want to go on vacation and come into the area to seek the cicadas,” Kritsky added. “In years past, I’ve also helped people plan vacations to leave while the cicadas are here.”

The entire mating ritual lasts only six weeks, at which point the cicadas will lay their eggs and then die.

“By July 1st, they’re gone,” the author noted.