(NEXSTAR) – 2024 brought us "cicada-geddon," a double awakening of two broods of periodical cicadas that swarmed much of the eastern United States over the spring and summer. The noisy insects have been silent for a few months now, but come spring 2025 their songs will ring out again.
Broods of periodical cicadas only emerge every 13 or 17 years. Some years, none of the named broods emerge. Last year was notable because two groups emerged at once and their areas had some geographic overlap.
In 2025, one brood is set to awaken. Brood XIV, shaded in lime green on the map below, is expected to come out of a 17-year slumber this year.
It won't be the cicada-geddon we saw in 2024, but it won't be subtle either. Brood XIV is the second-largest periodical brood of cicadas, according to the University of Connecticut.
It stretches from Southern Ohio through Kentucky and Tennessee. Parts of West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina are also expected to see the cicadas in 2025. There are also patches of Brood XIV territory in northeast Georgia; central Pennsylvania; Long Island, New York; and Cape Cod, Massachusetts, according to the University of Connecticut.
The exact timing is unpredictable, but periodical cicadas wait until the ground warms to 64 degrees to come out. For most states, that happens in May or June.
Once they emerge, cicadas stay active for about four to six weeks before disappearing.
Despite their loud mating songs and intimidating appearance, cicadas are not dangerous.
“All they do is just climb up on trees and pee. That’s as much damage as they do,” said Saad Bhamla, a professor at Georgia Tech College of Engineering.
Bhamla clarified that cicada pee is unlike mammalian pee in that it is largely water. “What’s coming out is just water. So you don’t have to worry, it isn’t like our human pee. It isn’t disgusting, it’s just water.”
If you thought 2024 was impressive, an even bigger adjacent joint emergence will be when the two largest broods, XIX and XIV, come out together in 2076, Cooley said: “That is the cicada-palooza.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
