Get ready, Ark-La-Tex; the 2024 cicada emergence is set to be the largest in 200 years. To make it worse, these will be teenage cicadas.
If you’re like me, the mere mention of cicadas makes your skin crawl. I hate these things, I really do. In fact, after mentioning them just a few times in writing over the past few seconds, my ears are ringing with their disturbing sounds. I’m not kidding, I can hear them right now.
Luckily, the sound is all in my head, as the cicada infestation of 2024 has not officially begun in Shreveport-Bossier… Yet. Sadly, their emergence should come any day now.
Are you ready for the incredibly bad news? Or I guess it’s good news if you’re somehow super into cicadas. Across the United States, this particular emergence is set to be the biggest we’ve seen in the past 200 years! People, we’re talking about a cicada emergence so large it could be classified as biblical.
The reason this emergence is so extreme is as interesting as it is rare. For the first time in our lifetimes, this year’s emergence features two cicada broods merging, and they will work together to form a blanket of cicada shells across the country. Naturally, some areas of America will be spared from the upcoming dual-brood swarm, but is the Ark-La-Tex on that lucky list?
No. Absolutely not. In fact, we might have it worse than just about anywhere.
Here in the Ark-La-Tex, we’ll be welcomed by brood XIX. If that’s a little too Elon Musk-sounding for you, it’s most commonly known as the Southern Brood. it’s a rare brood in its own right, only coming to visit us every 13 years. That’s right, the 2024 infestation for the SBC will feature countless moody-hormonal teenager cicadas.
Here are some more fun facts surrounding the 2024 cicada apocalypse:
- For the first time since 2015, a 13-year brood will emerge in the same year as a 17-year brood.
- For the first time since 1998, adjacent 13-and 17-year broods will emerge in the same year.
- For the first time since 1803 Brood XIX and XIII will co-emerge.
- You will be able to see all seven named periodical cicada species as adults in the same year, which will not happen again until 2037.
