Cicada Brood X

Cicada Brood X is about to arise and take over the Eastern United States. Brood X is the name for the occurrence of a large amount of cicadas breeds that only occurs every seventeen years. The reason this is such a big deal is because these bugs are fairly large and make a lot of noise, so their five-six week stay will start to become obnoxious. 

These cicadas will dig their way up from the ground after the ground has reached 64 degrees. While all cicadas do this, the phenomenon of Brood X comes up all at once while regular cicadas come up whenever they are developed enough to. 

These bugs will come out when they sense the right conditions, but scientists hypothesize that they will come out around mid-May. Then they will stay around for five-six weeks as they fulfill their cycle of life by mating and laying eggs that will fall to the ground and fully hatch in another seventeen years.

“The end of May through June, it can get pretty loud – if you are in an area where they are numerous, there can be hundreds of thousands, or millions, of them,” said Howard Russell, who is an entomologist at Michigan State University.

While there will be an uncountable mass of these bugs constantly around, they are not harmful to humans in any way. They will not do damage, bite, or try to get inside houses, so the biggest problem that people will have to deal with is blocking out the noise.

“I like their sounds, but I never want to see them ever,” said Isabelle Hernandez, 10, “They’re weird and scary, but cool.”

Some people may not mind noises that cicadas make as much, but they might just hate their presence in general. It is logical, because they are rather big for bugs, and many people do not like bugs in the first place. Regardless of people’s opinions about cicadas, they will appear any day now.