Cicadas May Not Emerge In Parts Of Western Pa. Until 2019
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - After sleeping underground for 17 years, cicadas are emerging in several local towns.
If you're not seeing or hearing them yet, just wait. However, how long you'll have to wait could change drastically - depending where you live.
An agricultural officer from West Virginia monitors cicadas from year to year. He compiled his information and turned it into a regional map, which he shared with the National Weather Service.
Check out the whole map here.
The purple part of the map, which includes parts of Washington, Fayette and Greene counties, the West Virginia panhandle and eastern Ohio, is called Brood V.
Those are the areas where cicadas are emerging this year.
"It's a pretty phenomenal evolutionary trick to hide for 17 years, and then all come out at once so your enemies can't eat all of you," said Lee Stivers of Penn State Agriculture Extension.
If you're in an area that's been invaded and are concerned about your trees. Experts say most larger trees can sustain the onslaught, but if you have a small tree you've planted in the past year, you should take some precautions.
"Cover the tree with insect netting," said Stivers.
Meanwhile, the rest of Western Pennsylvania could be waiting much longer for the cicadas to emerge.
The cyan/lighter blue section of the map, which includes most of the rest of our area, is Brood VIII.
Cicadas there won't emerge for another three years.
But if you're in the areas where they're emerging now, they are expected to be gone sometime around the Fourth of July.
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