LOUISVILLE, Ky. —
The classic sound of summer, a sometimes-deafening roar fills the air seemingly non-stop, will return.
No, not the sound of lawnmowers and weedwhackers, but cicadas.
Millions of the loud swarming bugs will emerge this year, with experts forecasting a rare "double brood" event in parts of the Midwest and Southeast.
“This is a situation where two separate groups, or broods, of cicadas will be emerging in the same calendar year. It isn't necessarily unheard of for this to occur,” said Dr. Johnathan Larson, an entomologist at the University of Kentucky.
This year’s expected broods, which are designated with Roman numerals, are Brood XIII (13) and Brood XIX (19).
Brood 13 emerges ever 17 years, while Brood 19 emerges every 13 years.
The co-emergence of these cicadas is a historical one. Larson said these two broods haven't emerged together since Thomas Jefferson was president of the United States in the early 1800s.
“It is also interesting because the two broods are fairly large, meaning there will be cicadas across a wide swath of eastern America,” Larson said.
How many cicadas will emerge in Kentucky, Indiana?
If you’re not a fan of the loud bugs, who only come out of the ground to mate, then there’s good news for those living in Kentucky and Indiana: neither state is expected to see a large emergence of either of these broods.
According to scientists at UConn, Brood 19 is expected to arise in western Kentucky, but in small numbers compared to states such as Alabama, Georgia, and the Carolinas.
Illinois is the unlucky spot in the U.S. as both broods are expected to emerge within the state at the same time, but the overlap between the two will still only cover a select number of counties in the state.
And if you're worried about the millions of cicadas potentially cross-breeding and creating a type of “super-brood?” Larson said it's not likely.
“The crossover area for these cicada broods is limited in range to a few counties in Illinois. Ostensibly, they should not be able to interbreed as they shouldn't respond to the cicada calls made by cicadas not in their same species," Larson said. "There is evidence that crossbreeding can occur but it probably won't be so widespread that we see a new brood born this year.”
Although we might see some cicadas across southern Indiana and Kentucky this summer, it’s unlikely we’ll see a mass emergence like the one of a few years ago.
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