There's gonna be a lot of loud humming this summer.

Cicadas emerge from underground in broods. The ones you hear in the summer are just the regular annual cicadas that do come from underground, but not in the billions that some states are about to experience.

But what makes a 'cicadapocalypse'? What's about to happen hasn't happened since Thomas Jefferson was president, according to CNN. And it won't happen again until 2245! Billions of cicadas are expected to surface this spring as two different broods — one that appears every 13 years, and another every 17 years — at the same time. Now, it will be at the same time, but not in the same areas. Dr. Jonathan Larson, an extension entomologist and assistant professor at the University of Kentucky, said it best,

We’re talking about an absolute oddity of nature, one of America’s coolest insects.

 

Should I prepare to go screaming down the street swatting cicadas?

No. Dr. Larson continued in the CNN article,

Though the idea of a cicadapocalypse may seem foreboding, experts predict that the two broods won’t overlap significantly, and the bugs themselves, while loud and numerous, are harmless.

Is Maine in the path of these giant, scary-looking insects?

Good news, Maine – we are not part of the birthing centers. Parts of the Midwest and Southeast are due for cicadas this spring. Northern Illinois, along with southern Wisconsin, eastern Iowa, and northwest Indiana are likely to see bugs from Brood XIII. Central and southern Illinois, most of Missouri, and scattered areas of Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas are due to get Brood XIX bugs. Maine? We're just getting the regular annual cicadas, not the periodical cicadas. They emerge later in the year. That's why you'll always hear that high-pitched buzzing in the dog days of summer.

If you have relatives in the above areas, they will see a ton of cicadas this spring! You could tell them that they are edible! But if you have a shellfish allergy, avoid them. I'm not even kidding.

Yeah...I'll pass.