'Bourbon brood' cicadas start emerging in Kentucky after 17-year slumber

[Emile]

Billions of the winged insects are set to emerge from underground starting this month for a weekslong, frenzied and famously noisy mating ritual.

Kentucky is known as the land of horses, bourbon and bluegrass — and soon, it will be home to a whole lot of cicadas.

Billions of the winged insects are set to emerge from underground starting this month for a weekslong, frenzied and famously noisy mating ritual.

This year, cicadas are expected to pop out of the ground in nearly a dozen states, but the emergence will mostly be centered in Kentucky and Tennessee. The insects will also appear in Illinois, Indiana, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia and small portions of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and New York.

Read more at: https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/bourbon-brood-cicadas-start-emerging-kentucky-17-year-slumber-rcna208078

[Duncanpup]

1. We're to have them here also.

[Emile]

2. I have a small pond and found cicadas are the best fish bait in the world.

Not sure if I will get any in my part of Indiana, but I will keep my eyes open.

[70sEraVet]

3. Right!

The fish get in such a frenzy eating the ones that fall in the water, that they will slam virtually ANYTHING that moves on the surface! I realized that, when I was fishing during a brood emergence and the fish were trying to swallow my bobber!!

[KY_EnviroGuy]

4. My place has hundreds of the shells all over everything.....

here in the Louisville area. I've collected a few for my microscope hobby and pointed out the pencil-size holes in the lawn to my son from which they came. They always create quite an uproar along certain stretches of I-64 that are walled on both sides where the interstate was cut through some hills.

The live adult insects that are perched are actually quite fun to mess with, almost like they enjoy the attention!

From Wikipedia on periodical cicada:

The term periodical cicada is commonly used to refer to any of the seven species of the genus Magicicada of eastern North America, the 13- and 17-year cicadas. They are called periodical because nearly all individuals in a local population are developmentally synchronized and emerge in the same year.

Magicicada species spend around 99.5% of their long lives underground in an immature state called a nymph. While underground, the nymphs feed on xylem fluids from the roots of broadleaf forest trees in the eastern United States.[4] In the spring of their 13th or 17th year, mature cicada nymphs emerge between late April and early June (depending on latitude), synchronously and in tremendous numbers.[5][6] The adults are active for only about four to six weeks after the unusually prolonged developmental phase.[7]

The males aggregate in chorus centers and call there to attract mates. Mated females lay eggs in the stems of woody plants. Within two months of the original emergence, the life cycle is complete and the adult cicadas die. Later in that same summer, the eggs hatch and the new nymphs burrow underground to develop for the next 13 or 17 years.

Thanks for the post! It's quite a ritual event in our area.

KY