PITTSBURGH (AP) — With their bulging red eyes and deafening mating song, the 17-year cicadas are about to emerge.
FILE – In this May 18, 2004 file photo, a swarm of cicadas take over a bush near Trenton, Ohio. With their bulging red eyes and deafening mating song, the 17-year cicadas are about to emerge. The insects have been waiting underground for nearly two decades, and millions are about to make their debut around western Pennsylvania, parts of eastern Ohio and a small swath of West Virginia. (Pat Auckerman/The Journal via AP, File)
The insects have been waiting underground for nearly two decades, and millions are about to make their debut around western Pennsylvania, parts of eastern Ohio and a small swath of West Virginia.
Penn State Extension horticulture educator Sandy Feather tells the Tribune Review it takes several days of temperatures above 60 degrees Fahrenheit (15.5 degrees Celsius) for them to emerge. Temperatures around Pittsburgh are forecast to be in the high 60s and low 70s next week.
Feather says they’ll be loud, but they don’t pose a threat to anything except very young trees.
Adult cicadas don’t eat or bite and exist only to mate. They’ll all be dead by the end of June.