If creepy-crawly flying insects are not your thing, you might want to stop reading now: Brood II has arrived. What is it? It's the infestation of cicadas that takes over the East Coast every 17 years. The insects do not bite or sting and have no intention of causing pain or damaging crops. Their only goal is to mate.
In between infestations, they stay underground for 17 years, emerging only when the ground temperature reaches precisely 64 degrees. Their emergence was delayed this time because of the East Coast's uncharacteristically cool spring temperatures. The cicadas have not been seen in these quantities on the East Coast since 1996 (before that, they showed up in 1979). Brood II has already begun in Virginia and some other Southern states. Farther north, in New York and New England, the infestation is expected to begin shortly, as summer quickly approaches.
Cicadas are easily identified by their unmistakable loud chattering noise — which has been measured at up to 94 decibels.
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