REYNOLDSBURG, Ohio — It won’t be too long before Brood X Cicadas will awaken from their 17-year sleep and audibly announce their presence.
According to a news release from the Ohio Department of Agriculture, the Brood X Cicadas will emerge from the ground in late April into early May.
The largest concentrations of cicadas should occur in Defiance, Franklin, Greene, Hamilton, Logan and Montgomery counties in Ohio.
Brood X “is one of the largest and most broadly distributed groups of periodical cicadas, stretching from Georgia to New York and reaching as far west as the Mississippi River,” the news release stated.
People shouldn’t be overly concerned about the cicadas themselves.
“They won’t cause any damage to your home, gardens, crops or animals. They also won’t harm mature trees, but you should consider protecting newly planted trees by wrapping them with a mesh net,” according to the news release.
The big inconvenience of Brood X is the noise they make.
“In large groups, the sound can reach as high as 100 decibels, which is equivalent to a motorcycle, low-flying airplane or lawn mower starting. The sound of a group of cicadas is often compared to the sound of electricity,” according to the Ohio Department of Agriculture.
The cicadas themselves “typically have black bodies, orange wing veins, red eyes and six legs. They have an antenna and are typically one to two inches in length with a three-inch wingspan,” stated the news release.
You can expect the cicadas to emerge when the soil temperature reaches 68 degrees.
“Cicadas come to the surface to molt and mate, before dying off. They will not sting or bite and are not poisonous to animals,” according to the news release.
