2024 Cicada Emergence: How Climate Change May Affect Future Broods

In the spring of 2024, we will witness another event in the U.S. that will darken the skies. This time, it’s not an eclipse but trillions of cicadas that will fill the skies. Cicadas are small insects that look like cockroaches. They periodically break out from the earth, shed their skin, mate, lay eggs, and die.

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This mass insect emergence last happened in 1803 when Thomas Jefferson was the U.S. President. After 2024, we won't see this again until 2245.

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What is the reason behind this rare occurrence of Cicadas?

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Out of thousands of cicada species worldwide, around 10-15 have an interesting life cycle. These periodical cicadas spend years underground as juveniles, feasting on plant sap, before all emerging at once.

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In 2024 2 of these species will emerge together. We will see Brood XIX emerging after a 13-year dormancy underground along with Brood XIII, a smaller group that appears every 17 years.

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The cicadas will use their forelegs to get out from the earth and will start looking for mating spots. To find a mate, the males will start buzzing using special organs on their abdomens. The interested females will respond with wing flicks, which also make a sound. Their collective noise can be louder than a plane.

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When cicadas come out from the ground, they leave holes behind. These holes let the soil breathe and help rainwater reach tree roots during hot summers.

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When and where are the cicadas coming out?

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The first waves of cicadas will emerge in northern Louisiana, southern Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, northern Georgia, and up into western South Carolina towards the end of April 2024.

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After that, they will surface in central North Carolina, eastern Tennessee, and northern Arkansas, followed by southern Missouri, Southern Illinois, and western Kentucky.

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Finally, they will appear in central and northern Missouri and Illinois, northwestern Indiana, southern Wisconsin, and eastern Iowa.

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Cicadas don’t bite or sting and they do not carry any disease. If you are in the coverage zone, you might find a lot of their squished bodies on sidewalks and city streets. If your pet shows any interest in this form of protein, it’s best to discourage them.

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If you find dead cicadas in your garden, consider them as free fertilizer for your plants instead of throwing them in the trash.

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Cicadas choose to come aboveground when the soil temperature hits around 64F (17C). With global warming caused by the burning of fossil fuels, these temperatures might become more frequent and disturb their natural periodic cycle.

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Climate change and periodical cicadas

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The emergence of cicadas is one of nature’s most well-timed events and humans have been documenting it for hundreds of years. But these events are shifting over time.

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We saw a small segment of Brood X cicadas emerge in 2017, a full four years before they should have come out. Thousands of cicadas were sighted in the Washington area that year.

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Scientists are still working to better understand why these changes are occurring and climate change may be a contributing factor.

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They have a hypothesis that climate change might be disrupting cicadas’ internal clock.

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Those weird warm spells that we sometimes get at the end of winter might trick cicadas into thinking a whole year has gone by.

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Cicadas strength lies in their numbers. On their own, they're easy pickings for birds and other predators. If they keep showing up early and in small numbers, they're sitting ducks. And that could spell trouble for future generations.

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