ANN ARBOR, Mich. – The cicadas are here (in Metro Detroit). Well, they’ve been here for 17 years. But now they’re emerging.
The sheer number of cicadas has caused car crashes in Ohio, grounded the White House press plane in Washington D.C. and now cicadas are making themselves known in Metro Detroit.
Read: 17-year cicadas to emerge in Michigan this spring: Everything you want to know
Also known as the Great Eastern Brood, the Brood X periodical cicada is a 17-year cicada that last emerged in 2004.
Periodical cicadas spend most of their lives as larva, burrowed in the ground. It takes them 17 years to mature from nymph to adult.
They feed on nutrients and fluids from the soil and small roots. When it’s time, they tunnel to the surface and wait for the soil to warm to about 64 degrees.
They’re starting to emerge in Ann Arbor. One woman said it’s so bad that she’s slipping on them. There are thousands of cicadas.