By Kelly White
If you haven’t heard the buzz yet, you will soon.
With 2024 marking a big year for periodical cicadas in Illinois, billions of the red-eyed buggers will soon be making an appearance.
Periodical cicada broods XIII and XIX will be emerging throughout much of the state at the same time. Although exact times and locations will be varied, there will be cicadas just about everywhere.
Kacie Athey, a specialty crop entomologist at the University of Illinois, said the Northern Illinois Brood that emerges every 17 years and the Great Southern Brood, which emerges every 13 years, will come out simultaneously for the first time since 1803. Stragglers from the Mississippi Valley Brood might also appear in 2024.
The Northern Illinois Brood, or Brood XIII, will be most seen in parts of northern Illinois and Indiana, and possibly even in Wisconsin, Iowa and parts of Ohio. This brood will be the most prominent in the Chicago area for the upcoming emergence, but distribution will be patchy.
For the past 17 years, billions of cicadas from Brood XIII have been living underground, tapping into fluid from plant roots. Once they emerge, they’ll be around for between four and six weeks.
Meanwhile, Brood XIX, or the Great Southern Brood cicadas or 13-year cicadas, have a more widespread population, covering parts of Missouri, Illinois, Louisiana, North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland.
It is important to remember that not every neighborhood is going to be as dense with them as others.
While the two broods will emerge at the same time, there will likely be only a few places in central Illinois, around Springfield, where they will emerge in the same area, according to the University of Illinois Extension.
The simultaneous emergence of these broods is the first time since 1803 and this once-in-a-lifetime occurrence won’t happen again until 2245.
In northern Illinois for 2024, scientists had deemed May 15 as the date that the cicadas most likely would emerge, as they require soil temperatures of 64 degrees Fahrenheit to do so. But with a warmer-than-average winter and spring, residents may start seeing some cicadas emerging already.
“They start coming out of the ground when the soil temperatures hits 64 degrees Fahrenheit at the depth that they’re actually at, which is 7 to 8 inches deep,” Athey said.
Although cicadas do not pose a threat to humans or pets, they will be heard. According to the National Institutes of Health, calls of male cicadas can reach over 90 decibels, which is as loud as a lawnmower.
Illinois residents should expect to both see and hear them from late May to mid-June.
Athey said males will emerge first and emit a loud singing noise, so, if you hear their song, you’ll know what to expect.
And, the area is preparing.
Although the cicadas do not pose a notable threat to livestock and will not harm crops, experts advise farmers, fruit producers and agriculturalists to keep an eye out for them.
Cicadas do damage by cutting into small branches and laying eggs inside of them. Tree fruit producers in Illinois, especially with young trees, do need to protect them if cicadas come out in their orchards. The most harm will be to young trees but mature trees that are planted in high densities are also at a high risk for cicada damage.
The Morton Arboretum, in Lisle, has actively been anticipating the emergence as hundreds of young and vulnerable trees are currently being covered in fine-mesh netting over several days to protect them from the imminent cicada emergence. Some cicadas have even already begun to emerge at and around the Arboretum.
Whether or not they come early, some parts of the cicadas will stick around longer than their lifespan, experts say.
Adult cicadas will be active until mid- to late-June, but you will see evidence long after they are gone, including their wings, molts and decomposing bodies.
While they will be loud, Athey encourages people to embrace the rarity. “Periodical cicadas don’t exist anywhere else on the planet except this part of North America,” she said. “This behavior is strange and it’s kind of cool, so, if you can, sort of appreciate the weirdness that are these creatures.”