ASHEVILLE – A reader asks if Western North Carolina will be overtaken this year by an emergence of ground-dwelling cicadas and their constant low hum.
Question : Is it time for the 17-year cicadas? I remember a real bad year for them was in 2007.
Answer : Not only are cicadas coming to the Southeast and Midwest this year, but they’ll be emerging like they never have before. Well, at least since the days of Thomas Jefferson’s presidency.
For the first time in 221 years , the region will see what’s known as a double emergence of two specific types, or broods, of cicadas across multiple states around spring and summer this year.
After 13 years, Brood XIX will pop out of the ground in the spring of 2024 in 15 states across the Southeast and Midwest, and the 17-year Brood XIII will emerge in five Midwestern states around the same time. That’s according to Cicada Mania, a website dedicated to cicadas, which the site calls “the most amazing insects in the world.”
These two types of broods won’t align again until 2076, according to a research article from the University of Connecticut.