17 Years Ago, Pennsylvania Was Invaded… And It’s About To Happen Again.

One of the most familiar sounds of summer intensifies to epic proportions once every 17 years: the buzzing of cicadas. These insects spend most of their lives underground, as larvae, and once they are mature they emerge from the ground, zombie-style. They flit about: molting, humming, mating, and laying eggs, for 4-6 weeks before disappearing. You've definitely seen the shells that they leave behind on trees and the ground, where they shed their juvenile exoskeletons.

This spring brings with it the next round of adult cicadas. Pennsylvania will be one of the states most heavily hit, along with Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and New York. According to CicadaMania.com, Fayette, Greene, Washington, and Westmoreland counties will be the most heavily affected in Pennsylvania.

Here, a newly mature cicada molts, leaving behind the (creepy) outer shell.

There are multiple broods of locusts that emerge on varying years. This year, Brood V will be swarming our area.

You can look forward to seeing (and hearing) them beginning in May.

Check out the below video to learn more about this unusual phenomenon.

Do you remember last time the cicadas emerged?