"A bad omen for an election year": Incoming explosion of billions of periodical cicadas in Illinois sparks wild reactions online 

A periodical cicada, an insect identified by its black exterior and orange ring-like marks, has been reigning in the headlines for the last few days. This is because the insect, which spends most of its life underground, is set to emerge in 2024, as it is time for them to reproduce.

However, what makes the event more memorable is that both 13-year (brood XIX) and 17-year (brood XIII) cicadas - where years refer to their life cycles - will together surface after 221 years. The last time they emerged together was in 1803, the year when Thomas Jefferson was the American President.

As per Business Insider, Illinois, among other places across the USA, is one of the places that is supposed to be filled with billions of cicadas (both broods) in the coming months.

Ever since the piece of news went viral, netizens have had wild reactions, drawing comparisons between the emergence of cicadas and the elections, both happening in 2024. In this regard, an X user commented:

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Internet has hilarious reactions to upcoming periodical cicada explosion in the USA

The last time that 13-year and 17-year periodical cicadas came out from their underground lairs to reproduce together was in 1803, the year when the USA acquired the territory of Louisiana from the French colonies, an event known historically as the Louisiana Purchase.

That same year, the U.S. Supreme Court had a hearing about the pioneering Marbury versus Madison case, which established the principle of judicial review in the country, meaning that the courts were given the power to reject laws and statutes they found to be unconstitutional.

Around the same time, Thomas Jefferson was also serving as the 3rd U.S. President.

While the dual cicada swarms aren’t going to overlap much, meaning that brood 17-year will appear in the southern states, while brood 13-year will appear near the Midwest, their prospective encounters might happen near Chicago, Illinois, especially around the Lake County Preserve, as per Business Insider.

Their emergence is expected to happen around late spring and continue between April and June.

Now that 2024 is the year the two broods are expected to resurface once more, the social media frenzy is on a high, with people speculating about what it may indicate. Below are some of the comments from @Rainmaker1973’s tweet:

Notably, periodical cicadas are as such harmless to mankind. However, they often appear in large numbers, make a lot of creaking noises. When they are done reproducing, they leave behind shells, which can make roads slippery. Besides, they can damage new trees by laying thousands of eggs on them.

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Here's how periodical cicadas reproduce

Professor and hunter Gene Kritsky, associated with Mount St. Joseph University, will travel from Cincinnati, Ohio, to Chicago, Illinois, and other periodical cicada sites to map out their appearances. He is an expert in the field and is the creator of Cicada Safari, an app that crowdsources photos of the insect for academic and scientific research.

Kritsky told the Business Insider how periodical cicadas reproduce. At first, the males come up at night and map out the territories for a few days, and are later followed by the females.

Thereafter, they shed their old exoskeleton, and develop a new one, and wait for it to harden, which indicates their maturity. Once done, the males make a noise that reportedly sounds like a “shrieking buzz,” to attract their mates. If the females respond to their calls, they unite in brightly lit areas and then lay 400-600 eggs each, usually between tiny twigs.

Unfortunately, after the reproduction, adult cicadas die, and six weeks later, the eggs hatch and soon crawl back underground, and live inside burrows, until it is time for them to reproduce, depending on the cycle they belong to.