Cicadas to emerge, swarm Southwestern Pennsylvania this spring

PITTSBURGH — Cicadas will swarm Southwestern Pennsylvania this spring, experts told Channel 11's News exchange partners at TribLIVE.

After its 17-year infancy, the massive brood of cicadas is expected to emerge from the ground -- with Southwestern Pennsylvania at the center of it, TribLIVE reported.

"In some areas, you can get as many as a million and a half individuals per acre, when they're really dense," Bob Davidson, invertebrate zoology collection manager for the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, told TribLIVE.

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A cicada swarm typically starts in May and is over by late June, according to Davidson.

Cicada nymphs feed on nutrients in tree roots while underground, waiting until they turn 17 to emerge when temperatures hit 64 degrees, TribLIVE reported. They then attach themselves to trees until they grow wings.

While cicadas are noisy, they're not harmful to people and don't eat crops, Sandy Feather, horticulture educator with Penn State Extension in Allegheny County, told TribLIVE.

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