Brood X cicadas emerge for first time in 17 years
PENNSYLVANIA - Brood X cicadas are being spotted after emerging from the ground for the first time in 17 years.
Experts say billions, if not trillions, of cicadas will now swarm 15 states over the next roughly month and a half.
"These are teenagers. They are 17 years old. They've been living a COVID-like existence underground, social-distancing in the dark and when they come up, they're going to party," University of Maryland entomologist Michael Raupp said.
The good news is cicadas don’t sting and they don’t bite.. They’ll be gone by early July and won’t be back for another 17 years.
A dad in Delaware was a tad creeped out to report that his 7-year-old son has become "obsessed with Brood X cicadas" and captured "a great many of them" in a net.
Caleb Curtiss, of Newark, Delaware, recorded video of his son’s impressive insect haul, joking on Twitter that he was "powerless to do anything about it".
Footage shared by Gifford Pinchot State Park in Lewisberry, Pennsylvania, shows cicadas covering a tree and husks littering the ground.
"The Brood X periodical cicada emergence is in full swing now!" wrote the park on the Facebook post.
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