A 17-year cicada-pocalypse is fast approaching – and Maryland will be ground zero when Brood X swarms across the mid-Atlantic and beyond, according to a UMD professor.
Mike Raupp – an emiratus entomology professor at the University of Maryland – told Baltimore’s WJZ recently that Maryland will be the “epicenter” of the cicada emergence set to arrive this spring.
Scientists at Virginia Tech say that as many as 1.5 million cicadas will emerge per acre as they infest regions including Maryland, Virginia and D.C.
There are two types of cicadas; annual and periodical cicadas.
Annual cicadas emerge in July and last into September. They are fast moving, and greenish in color.
Periodical cicadas, like those in Brood X, appear every 13 to 17 years from May to June. They are red-eyed, sluggish, and emerge by the millions.
Brood X is the 17-year group living in the capital region and will be emerging next spring.
In about 1980, Howard Stern on DC 101 offered a prize of
concert tickets and other goodies to the first person who
could bring a 30 gallon trash bag full of cicadas.
The prize was won by a Silver Spring listener inside of three hours.