Billions of cicadas are expected to start swarming in more than a dozen states in the coming weeks, and while the strange occurrence may be a nuisance for many, scientists say the activities of the noisy flying insects are a natural marvel beholden to northern America — and anglers say the bugs create ideal fishing conditions to net some hefty catches.
After years of living underground as nymphs feeding off the sap of tree roots, the 1- to 2-inch-long bugs will soon emerge from the soil, grow wings and start a frantic mating frenzy lasting several weeks before they will all eventually die near trees. While cicadas are not harmful to humans, they can damage young trees and their dead bodies can pile up and smell.
There are around 190 species of cicadas all over the world, but only in the eastern United States can you find the periodical cicadas, which emerge every 13 or 17 years.
This year will be the first time in 221 years that two types of cicadas — brood XIX and XIII — have risen from the ground at the same time, back when Thomas Jefferson was president, and it is not expected to happen again until 2244.
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The two broods together span parts of 17 states, including Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin, according to the United States Forest Service.
“It is a pretty amazing phenomenon, I mean, it’s unique,” Eric Benson, a professor emeritus and extension entomologist at Clemson University in South Carolina, told Fox News Digital.
“They’re one of the longest-lived insects that we know and the fact that a bug can be underground for 13 years or 17 years, and then almost at the exact same time, they all come out of the ground synchronized,” Benson said. “It’s amazing to me. It’s one of nature’s cooler phenomena in the…
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