Billions of cicadas to begin buzzing in days as 'rolling emergence' set to hit East Coast

CINCINNATI, Ohio – The arrival of warm spring temperatures also means the arrival of cicadas, which are expected to start filling the air with their iconic buzzing sounds as soon as next week in some parts of the U.S.

The cicadas emerging this year are part of Brood XIV, a cohort of 17-year periodical cicadas scattered throughout parts of the Southeast and Northeast, according to Gene Kritsky, Professor Emeritus of Biology at Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati and founder of CicadaSafari.org.

Having been buried for 17 years, the cicadas of Brood XIV will start digging their way up to the surface when the soil temperature rises to 64-65 degrees.

This means that some Americans may begin to see cicadas starting next week, Kritsky said. From there, the insects will emerge in a northward direction, as spring progresses and warm temperatures reach those areas the following weeks.

"It’s like this rolling emergence that occurs," Kristky said. He noted that the insects in any given area do not emerge in one day. Rather, they take about two weeks to rise to the surface.

Here is the timeline of when the cicadas are expected to emerge:

• Northern Georgia - Third week of April.
• Tennessee, North Carolina - Fourth week of April.
• Kentucky - First week of May.
• Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Pennsylvania - Second week of May.
• Massachusetts - Late May.

Once out of the ground, the male cicadas of Brood XIV will take up shop in nearby trees and produce their iconic loud buzzing sounds to attract females.

"The trees will just be screaming with all these males singing," Kritsky said to FOX Weather. "I have measured the intensity – the highest I’ve ever measured is 102 decibels. Commonly, you’ll see them coming in at 90 decibels. That’s louder than the planes landing at Dulles."

After mating, the female cicadas lay their eggs in the trees. As the adults die off, the eggs hatch and cicada nymphs are born. The nymphs, the next generation of Brood XIV, then drop to the ground and burrow their way into the soil, where they will feed off of the roots of trees and grass for the next 17 years.

Brood XIV is one of 15 known cicada broods, Kritsky said. He noted that 12 of the broods follow a 17-year cycle, whereas three follow the 13-year cycle.

However, there are certain factors that can impact the cycles of cicada broods.

One of which involves the removal of forests, as the cicadas need trees to survive – be it as part of their mating ritual or as their food source while they are underground.

"As we remove our forests, we are also removing cicadas," Kritsky said, noting that the cicada distribution in the U.S. is patchy due to land use and deforestation.

This can also apply to Mother Nature having a hand in removing trees. 

For example, historic flooding caused by Helene in western North Carolina, where cicadas from Brood XIV are supposed to emerge this year, uprooted countless trees and wiped out large areas of forest last fall.

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Whether the cicada emergence in the Tarheel State will be affected is yet to be seen.

"In the past, if the tree hasn’t been totally uprooted, that means the cicadas will very likely be fine," Kritsky said. "But if the tree has been blown over, uprooted, that’s going to destroy a lot of cicadas."

To help record the distribution of the cicadas, Kritsky said people can note their observations in the free app Cicada Safari. The information, along with cicada photos, people provide will help with research about cicadas.