Experts predict that people in the southeast of the US will witness a “sight to behold” this spring when another brood of periodical cicadas, which typically emerge every 13 years, synchronize with their appearance.
Periodical bugs are unique to North America; they are black in color and have red eyes that protrude, while annual cicadas, which are larger and greener than their black-bodied cousins, can be found elsewhere in the world.
It is thought that the last time the notoriously noisy periodical cicadas appeared simultaneously was in 1803, 221 years ago, during the presidency of Thomas Jefferson, one of America’s founding fathers.
John Cooley, a cicada researcher at the University of Connecticut, dubbed the impending dual invasion “cicada-geddon.”
