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Two Broods of Cicadas Make Mating History in Missouri

Jean yard
/
Flickr

Entomologists are predicting a noisy summer in Missouri as two broods of long-living cicadas emerge.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that a batch that spent 17 years underground will make a ruckus in the northwest part of the state. Another group will surface in southeast Missouri after a 13 year subterranean existence. Neither batch is expected to significantly affect the St. Louis area.

Missouri Department of Conservation forest entomologist Rob Lawrence says "it could be deafening."

The cicadas' emergence will mark the only time this century that a 13-year and a 17-year brood are arriving at the same time in Missouri. And it will be another 221 years before these two broods come out to mate at the same time in the state.

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