Cicadas are starting to emerge in Pennsylvania. When will Centre County see them?
Breathe easy, Centre County. The ballyhooed cicadas set to emerge in parts of Pennsylvania by the millions after 17 years underground aren’t coming to Centre County yet.
Periodical cicadas are expected to tunnel to the Centre County surface and play their cacophonous mating sound in spring 2025. They last emerged in 2008, when the iPhone was less than a year old.
The insects are native to the eastern United States and occur nowhere else in the world, Penn State researcher Michael Skvarla said.
Centre County is one of two Pennsylvania counties where periodical cicadas are expected to emerge in 2025, according to the U.S. Forest Service. The other is Clinton County.
“They’re not pests. Some people get annoyed because they’re loud and there’s so many of them, but if you’re somebody that doesn’t like them when they come out, it only lasts for a couple weeks,” Skvarla said. “We’ve got something really special and unique here that I think is really neat.”
How long are cicadas out?
Nymphs live in the soil at depths of two-to-24 inches. They feed on sap from trees roots until the soil temperature reaches 64, which typically occurs between mid-May to early June.
Males sing to attract females, with the group capable of reaching 110 decibels, Skvarla said. That’s louder than most power tools and about as loud as concerts and sporting events.
Adult periodical cicadas live for about three to four weeks above ground. Each female can lay about 400-600 eggs over a lifetime, allowing the natural cycle to repeat.
Are cicadas harmful?
The insects do not bite people and are usually a nuisance at most because of the noise they produce, Skvarla said. Young trees can sometimes be damaged or killed, but that can be avoided by delaying planting or covering at-risk trees with netting.
Periodical cicadas are even safe to eat. They have as much protein as red or factory-farmed meat, Johns Hopkins researcher Jessica Fanzo wrote.
How close will cicadas get to Centre County this year?
Pockets of “Brood X” periodical cicadas are already emerging in neighboring Mifflin, Huntingdon and Blair counties, Skvarla said. Some broods are largely geographically isolated and connect like puzzle pieces throughout the Middle Atlantic.
It’s unclear why that happens, Skvarla said, but it’s something researchers are investigating.
It’s also not known how many cicadas may emerge in 2025, but it’s not uncommon for there to be up to a million cicadas per acre. That’s about the size of a football field, minus the end zones.
“They can be really abundant, but they don’t bite or sting,” Skvarla said. “They’re mostly just — I find — exciting to go see and look at.”
This story was originally published May 26, 2021 at 2:26 PM.