Billions Of Cicadas Could Emerge Sooner Than Expected In IL

ILLINOIS — Billions of cicadas will emerge in Illinois, possibly as soon as this month, according to reports, which is earlier than is typical for the insects.

Juvenile cicadas surface after rain when soil temperature 8 inches below ground level rises above 64 degrees, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“The dependence on a specific soil temperature means that a changing climate can affect the emergence timing of periodical cicadas by a matter of days, months, and sometimes years,” according to the agency.

The 17-year cicadas in Brood XIII are expected to show up in the Chicago area around mid-May, but could come earlier due to warmer weather, Allen Lawrence, the associate curator of entomology for the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, told NBC 5 Chicago. Officials in Chicago and Lake Forest have warned the insects could arrive as soon as April, according to the outlet.

The 13-year cicadas in Brood XIX may emerge in central and southern Illinois even sooner, NBC 5 reported.

In a rare event that hasn’t happened since 1803, Brood XIII, known as the Northern Illinois Brood, and the Brood XIX, or the Great Southern Brood, are both expected to appear this spring.

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The Northern Illinois Brood, as the name implies, will mainly appear in the northern and central parts of the state, according to the University of Illinois Extension.

The Great Southern Brood will be in southern and central Illinois, with the broods transitioning from one to the other around the Springfield area and more broadly throughout the middle of the state, according to the university.

Brood XIII cicadas also appear in Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio and a bit of Michigan. The Northern Illinois brood has a reputation for being the largest emergence of cicadas anywhere. According to research by entomologists Monte Lloyd and Henry Dybas at the Field Museum in Chicago, a 1956 brood of Northern Illinois cicadas produced 1.5 million cicadas per acre.

The Great Southern Brood will be found in a much larger area that touches 15 states: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

Cicadas spend most of their lives underground as immature nymphs but surface en masse every 13 or 17 years. They are expected to appear for about four weeks, according to the university.

Their extraordinarily long life cycle, the longest of any insect on the planet, is part of an evolutionary strategy that has allowed the species to survive for 1.8 million years, or from the Pleistocene Epoch.

Cicadas are about an inch long and have a three-inch wingspan. Their mating calls can be deafening, heralding their arrival above ground with a high-pitched cacophony of buzzing that can reach decibels of 100 or greater — about the same as a subway train, forklift or motorcycle.

Pesticides won’t kill cicadas and are not recommended.