Cicadas are about to take over. Here’s what you should know

Love ’em or hate ’em, the cicadas are coming. 2025 will bring back Brood XIV, the largest of all 17-year periodical cicada broods.

Cicada enthusiasts surely don’t mind the noisy creatures. But if you’re someone who finds the constant nighttime buzz bothersome and live in one of the following 13 states, maybe consider investing in a good pair of noise-canceling earbuds.

Brood XIV are expected this spring in Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Gene Kritsky, founder of Cicada Safari, a group that crowdsources and reviews data on cicadas, told USAToday that some areas will get more of the critters than others, and that based on historical data and the weather, Georgia, Tennessee, and the Carolinas can expect to hear the visitors first, starting as early as the end of April.

“It takes about two full weeks for the great bulk of the cicadas to come out,” Kritsky said. “Once they start coming out at a specific location, that starts the clock. You’ll have cicadas at that location for the next six weeks.”

And though Kritsky predicts that this year’s gang will be heavy in some areas, 2024 was a much busier (and buzzier) year for cicadas. That’s because 13-year cicadas, Brood XIX, and 17-year cicadas, Brood XIII, both emerged last year, according to the University of Connecticut’s research team. That was the first time the two broods synced up since 1803, and it won’t happen again until 2037. 

If you’re thinking that you’ve seen cicadas way more than once every 17 years, you’re not wrong. There are seven species of cicadas that emerge on different schedules. Four have 13-year cycles and three have 17-year cycles. Plus, most cicada species are annual, which means you can see—and hear—some species every year. 

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