Cicadas, they’re back

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – 2024 is a big year for cicadas – in fact, the United States is set to see billions of them during the summer.

Two separate broods, XIII (13) in the Midwest and XIX (19) in the Midwest and Southeast, will begin climbing out of the earth as soon as the ground temperature reaches 68 degrees Fahrenheit.

This dual brood awakening is a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence, says University of Kentucky entomologist Jonathan Larson. The last time this happened was in 1809 when Thomas Jefferson was president.

“Kentucky will be a part of this large emergence that people are talking about, this double emergence. It will be mostly centered in far western Kentucky. We’re talking about places like Allen Caldwell, Christian and Trigg County, three counties. These will be the places that will see these cicadas. These are 13 year cicadas. They’re a part of the Great Southern Brood, one of the biggest broods of these periodical cicadas that we have,” Larson said.

These dark brown, red-eyed 13-year cicadas will leave the ground, molt and dart off in search of a mate. They will lay billions of eggs across the Southeast and Midwest to reset the cycle again.

“It’s not going to blot out the sun or anything, but there are lots of them. The numbers that people are talking about, that’s kind of a national look at the situation and the reason that it seems so big is because there are two broods coming out at the same time, a not unknown event like it does occur. But usually the broods that are coming out together are smaller and further apart,” Larson said.

For generations, people have seen the sheer numbers of cicadas flying across farms and towns as a plague, their bodies littering the ground after they expire. But Larson says that they really cause no harm.

“So historically, people have sometimes called these locusts because it seems almost biblical the way that they behave. The truth is, is no, they’re not going to create problems for people. They don’t attack crops. They could harm young trees. But by and large, we can remedy that with some netting around the tree. Nursery owners may take some extra precautions. But the average Kentuckian, they’re not going to have a lot to fear from this,” Larson said.