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These early birds are known as stragglers, and experts estimate that they might make up only about five to ten percent of Brood X
May 22, 2017
Why are cicadas already emerging Northern Kentucky?
Newport KY: When they arrived in Northern Kentucky and Cincinnati, the desiccated husks of the red-eyed invaders coated hot sidewalks like leaves in the fall.
They got into classrooms and cars, and pet owners had to pull away their cats and dogs before they gorged themselves silly on the tasty, plump food that littered every surface.
The husks crunched underfoot, while their living brethren sang in a constant, raucous din that could drown out thought and worries. After 17 years, the cicadas of Brood X were back.
Then, just a few weeks later, they were gone.
They laid their eggs in trees, giving their larvae access to the arboreal roots that would sustain them for the next 17 years—until 2021, when they would emerge again in overwhelming numbers, notes Popular Science magazine.
But some of them just couldn’t wait to get the party started, the magazine quips.
This year there are reports of cicadas in Washington DC, Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky, across Maryland, Virginia, and Indiana -- all locations that were inundated with cicadas in 2004.
The cicada brood that we were all expecting to see this year was Brood VI, which last emerged in 2000 and was due to pop up in the western parts of North and South Carolina and northern Georgia.
Those Brood VI cicadas are coming out, but there are also cicadas appearing in Ohio and the areas around DC, which is much more definitively Brood X territory.
These early birds are known as stragglers, and experts estimate that they might make up only about five to ten percent of Brood X in any given area.
So don’t worry, there will still be plenty of Brood X left to join the party in 2021, notes Popular Science magazine using other sources.
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Northern Kentucky cicadas emerging, Cicadas emerge four years early
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