WARS, TRUMP AND NOW THE CICADAS: THINGS ARE GETTING BIBLICAL IN 2024

                                                                                                                                                                                       Jim Wood, Smithsonian Institution

A cicada from Brood X in 2021 next to the shed exoskeleton from which it emerged.

From the NYT:

This spring, for the first time since 1803, two cicada groups known as Brood XIX, or the Great Southern Brood, and Brood XIII, or the Northern Illinois Brood, are set to appear at the same time, in what is known as a dual emergence.

The last time the Northern Illinois Brood’s 17-year cycle aligned with the Great Southern Brood’s 13-year period, Thomas Jefferson was president. After this spring, it’ll be another 221 years before the broods, which are geographically adjacent, appear together again.

They will appear late April in roughly 16 Midwest and Southeast states. This dual emergence will bring around 1 trillion cicadas appearing in these areas. They live around a month and it is noteworthy that during the 1990 singular emergence in Illinois, people used snow shovels to clear the insect carcasses from sidewalks and driveways. Entomologists suggest that folks should consider this as free fertilizer for their plants. 

 

                                                                                                                                                  Gene Kritsky, Mount St. Joseph University

                Brood XIII is shown by blue dots, and Brood XIX is shown with red dots.