CINCINNATI — For anyone that has been sprinting between buildings and their cars because of the cicadas, here's some good news: A lot of the annoying, lumbering bugs will be gone soon.
Brood X has been loud recently, but according to Dr. Gene Kritsky, the dean of behavioral and natural sciences for Mount Saint Joseph University, this means the cicadas have reached the peak of their mating season. Now, many will be dying off in the coming days.
"You’ll hear them, but they’re not going to be like they are now, where they’re just all over the place," Kritsky said.
GALLERY: Add your Brood X photos before they're all gone!
Cincinnati isn't out of the woods yet, though. Kritsky said he expects Brood X's reign to be over around July 1.
Many people said the cicadas this year are nothing compared to the emergences in 2004 and 1987, but Kritsky said it's just as bad now as it was then.
"There’s a simple analogy – you go back and visit your childhood home as an adult, it always seems small," he said. "I was here in ’87, 2004 and now. They’re just as bad as they were those two previous emergences. The chorusing I measured in 2004, 96 decibels. I measured it 95 this year.”
However, some people on the East Side said they haven't seen or heard the cicadas this year. Kritsky said Brood 14 will make their presence known in the Batavia and Milford areas in 2025.
