After 17 Years, Billions Of Cicadas Will Take Over US East Coast To Breed And Die
Normally surviving on tree roots underground, as the ground will start getting hot (over 17 degrees celsius), billions of these giant flying bugs will come to the surface to mate. This is a ritual that repeats every seventeen years.
In just over a month's time, billions of cicadas are gearing up to invade the east coast of the United States this spring after being buried underground, alive, for nearly 17 years.
It's going to be a sight unlike anything we've seen in close to two decades, very similar to the locust swarms that invaded India last year.
Getty Images
ALSO READ: Locust Swarm Attacks Prayagraj, Video Of Terrifying One-Kilometre-Long Swarm Goes Viral
Curious case of the cicadas
Normally surviving on tree roots underground, as the ground will start getting hot (over 17 degrees celsius), billions of these giant flying bugs will come to the surface to mate. This hibernation and re-surfacing of cicadas is a ritual that repeats every seventeen years in the United States of America. Very similar to the locust swarms that took over Northern India last year.
University of Maryland entomologist Mike Raupp explained in a Washington Post article, ¡°We are at the epicentre of an event that happens nowhere else on the planet except here in the Eastern United States. It¡¯s going to be pretty remarkable, come the latter half of May. The densities of these things is going be phenomenal, about 1.5 million per acre. It blows your mind.¡±
High-decibel cicada mating call
There are three cicada species that are going to be a part of this phenomenon -- Magicicada Septendecim, Magicicada Cassini and Magicicada Septendecula. As they surface, some of these cicadas will become prey to the animals nearby, but with the crazy population of these cicadas, eventually animals will stop consuming them -- similar to humans in an all-you-can-eat-buffet.
The survivors in these cicada swarms then will start singing their very own mating song, from different trees to attract mates and copulate. According to Raupp, the mating songs of cicadas can reach as high as 100 decibels and sound similar to a chainsaw or a lawnmower.
Getty Images
Cicadas don¡¯t survive after mating, the female puts their eggs in trees and perishes in a few moments. These eggs then hatch after some time and then fall to the ground. At this time these newborn cicadas dig into the Earth and go towards the trees to chew on the tree toot for nearly 17 years until they are ready to re-emerge.
The cicada population will be prominent in southern states like Georgia, Washington DC, Maryland, and Virginia among several others in the east coast of the nation.
