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One of the rarest , and perhaps most irritating , instinctive phenomena has begun across the South : the egress of the Great Southern Brood .
The brood millions of plant - munchinginsectscalled cicala is finally fawn to the surface after 13 days underground . The cicadas will spend a few weeks mate and laying eggs . Then they ’ll all die .
After 13 years underground, Brood 19 is here, and they’re making themselves known.
In in-between Georgia , the emergence is under way and the tune is alive with an unending trailer of pair calls , 24 hours a sidereal day .
" We ’ve been hum here for a couple weeks now , " say Carolyn Johnson of the Piedmont National Wildlife Refuge , just northward of Macon , Ga ..
Known as Brood 19 , thesecicadascrawl above basis every 13 twelvemonth . They live in about a dozen State Department in the Southeast and Midwest and can be found as far northwards as Missouri and Illinois .
After 13 years underground, Brood 19 is here, and they’re making themselves known.
The brood is harmless , except to one ’s peace of mind . They make a constant electric hum that Kevin Kramer , of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources in fundamental Georgia , compare to a muffled burglar dismay .
" We hear them every mean solar day , " Kramer tell OurAmazingPlanet . " You ca n’t ignore it . "
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A member of Brood 19 sheds its exoskeleton.
Ai n’t run off time no more
Once aboveground , cicada houri pour forth their hardened exoskeleton and go looking for natural process . These cicadas arefreaky lookingif not a mo flashy , with hungry red eyes and orange veined wings .
Males draw attention to themselves by puddle a lot of noise , perhaps not shockingly . They contract construction called tymbals on their abdomens to produce their call . The female flirt back by clicking their annex . The noise is loudest in the low areas because that ’s where they are emerging all at once , in the gravid numbers .
A member of Brood 19 sheds its exoskeleton.
" It can be deafen here on the refuge in some of the bottom , " Johnson pronounce .
At the Piedmont Refuge , the only time the brood calmed down was after tornadoes amount through last week . That shut them up for about three hours , Johnson order .
Loud and lofty
by from their never-ending randomness and creating theexoskeletontrash , the cicala are n’t look for any trouble . They do n’t sting or bite , although they ’ll occasionally nibble on people , the feeling akin to a pinprick .
Brood 19 is not poisonous and wo n’t beam disease . The cicada do feed plants , and if too many germ gang up on something Johnson has attend entire trees surface in cicadas they may leave a mark . But most people opt to hold back them out or else of spraying pesticide .
If you lack the dumb yowl of Brood 19 this year , do n’t worry ; you could catch them again in 2024 .
