Billions of 17-year cicadas are about to emerge and swarm Michigan

Brood X cicadas, like this one from 2004, will emerge in the billions in 2021 for the first time in 17 years. (Photo by Paul Savage | The Times of Trenton)


Billions and billions of Brood X cicadas are about to emerge from the ground and swarm much of the East Coast, including parts of Michigan. We haven’t seen these bugs with the big red eyes since 2004.

From North Carolina to Connecticut and all the way into Michigan, humans will be outnumbered by the insects by about 600 to 1. Essentially, they will be all over the place, but won’t make it everywhere in Michigan.

“They’ll be only in the extreme lower southeast peninsula. Ann Arbor is about as far north as they come,” said Howard Russell, an insect/arthropod diagnostician at Michigan State University. “Nearby, they occur pretty much throughout Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. They’re in Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and quite a few other states. This is the most widespread brood.”

These are some of the world’s longest-living insects and while they stay underground, the bugs aren’t actually asleep. They go through different growth stages before coming to the surface to mate.

Read more: https://www.mlive.com/life/2021/01/billions-of-17-year-cicadas-are-about-to-emerge-and-swarm-michigan.html