A loud, obnoxious brood of cicadas is due to arrive this year in Southwest Ohio, four years ahead of their predicted return of 2021.
Citing a Mount Saint Joseph University study, some of the offspring of Brood X, the batch of cicadas that hatch every 17 years, will emerge from their earthbound burrows and take to the air this summer, according to a report from our news partner in Cincinnati, WCPO-Ch. 9.
The early arrival is because some of the brood emerged early in 2000 instead of 2004 and their descendants are ready to be seen, and heard.
That means a few hundred thousand of the gaudy fliers will be littering sidewalks and trees, brashly buzzing into people and cars in Southwest Ohio this summer, according to WCPO’s report.
Mount Saint Joseph researchers are asking people to help map the cicadas return this year. For more information, visit the MSJ Cicada Web Site.
We’ll be talking with an expert on insects from Wright State University about the potential impact of the emergence in the Miami Valley.
