Local bug experts predict a noisy invasion by Brood X cicadas when they emerge from the earth after a 17-year hiatus, but not much crop or vegetation damage.
These Brood X cicadas are periodic, belonging to a species with a 17-year cycle. Sometimes referred to as the "great eastern brood," they are expected to appear in nearly two-thirds of Pennsylvania counties, including dozens in the eastern part of the state, such as Lehigh, Northampton, Berks and Bucks.
The large insect, which often is mistaken for a grasshopper or locust, does "next to no damage" to crops and other vegetation, says Karen Bernhard, an entomologist with Lehigh County's Agricultural Extension Service.
Shortly after they emerge, male cicadas begin singing to attract females, a sound often misinterpreted as the insects munching on leaves and plants. But, says Bernhard, once they emerge, the insects do very little eating. The females may cause some damage to branches as they make longs slits in which to deposit their eggs. Young and newly planted trees are most at risk of damage.
Bernhard has received only a few calls about the large insects, but that may change as they begin to appear.