The pesky little creatures will devastate several areas for about six weeks before dying. The next time this happens will be in the year 2245.
This spring, swarms of large, annoying insects are coming to several parts of the United States.
The short version
- In April, a very noisy period begins in several US states, as cicadas are expected to hatch in large numbers.
The summary is created with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) and quality guaranteed by Aftenposten journalists.
This year, something very loud is coming to parts of the United States. No, this time it is not about the presidential elections, but rather a much rarer phenomenon.
We often hear it in movies, in desolate landscape scenes or at twilight. Singing cicadas, a type of enlarged grasshopper. They are among the noisiest insects in the world.
This year, two species of cicadas will be hatching at the same time, and in some areas you'll find both species. whats the result? A really annoying bug party that lasts for six weeks.
This phenomenon begins in April. Then the immature cicadas, also called nymphs, begin to emerge from the ground. After a few days the tinnitus begins. It is the sound of the male cicadas on the checkers. They are called potential makers.
Double dose of insect hordes
The cycle length of the two species is 17 and 13 years, respectively. Then they lie like nymphs on the ground. It rarely has what is called a double appearance. This means that they come out of the ground in the same year. This is what Reuters wrote.
The last time this happened in the United States, Thomas Jefferson was president, in 1803. Then it will be 221 years until the next time.
“No person alive today will ever experience this again,” says Floyd W. Shockley New York times. He is an entomologist and head of collections at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.
The two cicada species come in large groups to an area spanning 16 different states. But there is only one place where they will overlap. It's in a small area in central Illinois.
Do noisy male cicadas hunt? Mating, after all, is the reason they sing so loudly.
Ice boxes with insects
It is estimated that a trillion cicadas – that is, a thousand billion animals – will enjoy their time in areas where there are forests.
To illustrate the sheer number of insects, you can imagine that the cicadas were lined up one after another.
He told the newspaper that this cicada train would have reached the moon and back 33 times.
You might think this with the sound is a bit exaggerated? After all, we have grasshoppers here in Norway too. Well, the symphony of these cicadas can be louder than the sound of an airplane. This is what the New York Times wrote.
After successful duet singing and mating, the males die. The females also die, but not before laying their eggs, which eventually land on the ground and begin a new cycle for the buzzing insect.
Not only are they a live annoyance, they can also create some action when the song stops. In the 1990 cicada invasion, there were reportedly stories of people in Chicago having to use snow shovels to clear dead cicadas from sidewalks.
They also leave behind an unforgettable odor when they die.
But enough negativity. They do not bite or sting, and act as natural tree gardeners.
The holes they leave aerate the soil and allow rainwater to reach the ground and nourish the roots during the hot summer months.
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