Will PA see more cicadas this year?

SALEM TOWNSHIP, WAYNE COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU)— It’s the season of cicadas emerging from the ground, but this year parts of the US will be seeing trillions of them.

28/22 News Reporter Sydney Kostus visited an environmental education center in the Poconos to find out if parts of our region will be swarmed with the species.

It’s the sound we all know, and the sight of it that some fear: cicadas.

Following a 17-year hiatus, two broods of the insect will emerge in more than a dozen states in the coming weeks, but will we be seeing them in our backyards here in PA? We asked the experts at Lacawac Sanctuary in Salem Township.

“No, not for the year 2024. The cicadas will be emerging in the south and in the midwest this year. Next year in 2025 will be our cicada boom,” said Natalie Wasilchak, Assistant Environmental Education Director at Lacawac Sanctuary.

Wasilchak says the cicada is native to Pennsylvania and is broken down into two types, the annual ones we always see, and periodical ones that come in waves of 13 and 17 years.

Lacawac Sanctuary is a non-profit with a mission to research, educate, and preserve, hosting different educational programs and outdoor activities for the public.

Officials with the center say it’s important to ask local experts about native species.

“Kids are more likely to know the animals in the rainforest than the animals in their backyard which is sad, but true and we need to change that,” added Nichole Seul, assistant School programs director at Lacawac Sanctuary.

You may not see tons of cicadas this year in the Keystone State, but officials with Lacawac want to remind you if you do see them, don’t be scared because they aren’t dangerous.

“Cicadas are super clumsy. They really only have one thing in mind when they emerge and that’s reproducing so that their genes get spread on through the next brood and then they die,” Wasilchak told 28/22 News.

Officials with the education center say the cicada’s life span only lasts for a few weeks, so they should be gone by August.

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