Billions of cicadas in the Midwest this spring will be ‘a really weird phenomenon’
This spring, billions of cicadas will dig their way out of the soil across most of the Midwest and Southeast, filling the air with their cacophonous soundtrack. Starting in late April, two major broods of cicadas that show up on 13- and 17-year cycles will crawl out of the soil and head to treetops to sing and mate. It’s the first time these two broods have emerged at the same time in 221 years. The males will die almost immediately after mating. The females will live just long enough to build nests in the trees and lay eggs. By the time those eggs [...]