Brood Of Cicadas Will Surface In MD This Spring: Here's When And Where

MARYLAND — After 17 years underground, a large group of periodical cicadas known as Brood XIV is about to emerge — and Maryland will not be spared from the swarms of extremely noisy insects.

Brood XIV will surface in 13 states. In addition to Maryland, people in Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia also can expect them, according to CicadaMania.com.

In Maryland, the cicadas emerging are called stragglers, because they are coming up off-schedule, either early or late. Typically, cicadas with a 17-year lifecycle will emerge four years early, and cicadas with a 13-year cycle will emerge four years late, the cicada experts said.

The return of Brood XIV, of the Great(er) Eastern Brood, will bring trillions of the cacophonous bugs to 13 states. Most Marylanders heard cicadas keep neighborhoods buzzing in 2021.

"You know, we said we weren't gonna see them for another 17 years. Right? But oh, my gosh! Here they are again. This is brood 14 coming in," Dr. Michael Raupp, Professor Emeritus at the University of Maryland, told WJZ.

Scientists at the University of Connecticut said cicadas come out once the temperature of the soil reaches about 64 degrees at a depth of 7 to 8 inches.

According to CBS News, some parts of Maryland saw cicadas emerge in mid-May last year.

Cicadas will be regularly seen as a trickle in some parts of their range in late April or early May "with a tsunami hitting in the last two weeks of May and early June as these teenagers are up and out for the Cicadapalooza," Raupp wrote last month.

Here's when Gene Kritsky, founder of Cicada Safari, told USA TODAY cicadas are likely to emerge in different areas:

• First week of May – central Ohio, northern Tennessee, western Virginia
• Second or third week of May – West Virginia, northern Kentucky, southern Ohio, Maryland and Massachusetts

There are more than 3,000 species of cicadas across the world. They spend most of their lives underground and emerge only at the end of their lives to mate and lay their eggs.

The Brood XIV periodical cicada emergence won’t match 2024’s voluminous cicada emergence — in which billions of 13- and 17-year cicadas came out of the ground across parts of the Southeast and Midwest.

However, Brood XIV is the second-largest periodical brood, according to the University of Connecticut. The largest? Brood XIX is the largest.

Male cicadas are known for their extremely loud chirping, which is performed as part of their mating ritual and can reach 100 decibels. That is about as loud as a jackhammer or a lawn mower struggling with particularly tall grass.

Though their noise can be irritating, cicadas are not harmful to humans, most pets or trees and shrubs.