Billions of cicadas will emerge from the depths, but some will escape their underground abode as sex-crazed “zombies.”
The winged insects have fallen victim to a parasitic fungus, called Massopora cicadina, which devours the creature’s abdomen, genitals and buttocks, replacing them with fungal spores.
Once the fungus is in charge, it signals the infected male to perform a mating ritual by flapping its wings, tempting unsuspecting males to transmit the fungus.
“It’s pretty clever and technically it’s a sexually transmitted disease,” Smithsonian entomologist and director of collections Floyd Shockley told DailyMail.com.
Billions of cicadas will emerge from the depths, but some will escape their underground abode as sex-crazed ‘zombies’.
‘[The fungus] It creates a spore plug that looks like the end of the abdomen is still intact, but eats away at the reproductive organs (making them infertile) and causes the abdominal segments to fall off.
‘Create the plug to keep the cicada alive as long as possible. A dead cicada is not a very effective vector for spreading to other cicadas.
He went on to explain that cicadas are not dead or craving brains, unlike zombies, but are “very much alive.”
Infection begins when the nymphs make their journey to the surface, climbing through spores in the soil.
“Although men and women can be infected equally, the fungus produces a hallucinogenic compound that produces a change in infected men,” Shockley said.
“They are thrown into sexual overdrive and respond to the males’ mating calls and flap their wings like females receptive to mating.
“In doing so, they can infect both males and females… and are tricked into doing so as much as they can for as long as possible before they eventually succumb to the fungus and die.”
The winged insects have fallen victim to a parasitic fungus, called Massopora cicadina, which devours the creature’s abdomen, genitals and buttocks, replacing them with fungal spores.
Once the fungus is in charge, it signals the infected male to perform a mating ritual by flapping its wings, tempting unsuspecting males to transmit the fungus.
Cicadas typically live four to six weeks after surfacing, but Shockley said those infected have a much shorter lifespan, although the number is unknown.
“The mushroom produces the same hallucinogenic compound found in magic mushrooms, psilocybin or the amphetamine cathinone, which suppresses appetite and activates the mating instinct,” Shockley said.
“The fungus chemically induces a behavior that the male is genetically programmed to recognize and imitate.”
For the first time since the 19th century, two broods of cicadas will emerge in more than a dozen states, mate and lay millions more eggs.
The insects, known for their cries, hibernate in cycles of 13 or 17 years, but a group of each will surface together this year.
Infection begins when the nymphs make their journey to the surface, climbing through spores in the soil.
The infestation is planned for 16 states that will likely see hundreds, if not thousands, of trees “damaged beyond recovery,” a Tennessee Tech University professor warned.
Dr Gene Kritsky, professor, entomologist and cicada expert at Mount St. Joseph University, told DailyMail.com in January: ‘Dual occurrence is an event that occurs one in every two or three lifetimes.
“This happens 12 times every 221 years, but this is the first time since 1803 that these hatchlings will emerge together.”
Brood XIX last appeared in 2011, but will now be released in parts of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.
The other group, Brood XIII, has a 17-year cycle and last appeared in 2007.
States scheduled for Brood XIII include Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Wisconsin.
Brood XIX, known as the Northern Illinois Brood, contains three different species of cicadas and the Great Southern Brood, or Brood XIII, has four species.
The infestation is planned for 16 states, and some states like Illinois and Indiana will see both clusters around the same time.
The winged and red-eyed insects hibernate on 13- or 17-year cycles, but the state will soon be full of both, and experts have predicted there will be a million per acre of land.
The XIX calf will begin its great escape from the ground closer to mid-May.
And it will be located primarily in the Midwestern states.
Brood XIII will begin to escape from the ground from the end of April until the second week of May.
“The southern states will receive them the last week of April, followed by parts of Missouri, Kentucky, North Carolina and Virginia in May,” said Kritsky, who recently published a book called “A story of two generations: The appearance in 2024 of the periodic breeding of cicadas XIII and XIX.’
“By the third week of May, the bugs will start showing up in Illinois and Missouri, Wisconsin and Iowa.”
The soil will first have to reach the perfect temperature of 64 degrees Fahrenheit at a depth of 12 to 18 inches before the insects emerge.
Ground temperature acts as a signal to cicadas, letting them know that the outside world is optimal for survival, but cold does not kill cicadas.
“We need two or three days above 80 degrees to get the ground to 64 degrees,” Kritsky said.
“Cicacadas have receptors that activate when temperatures increase.”
Experts have predicted that forested areas, including urban green areas, will suffer greater infestation than agricultural regions.
However, for humans insects are more annoying than dangerous.
Cicadas do not transmit diseases, but they create crevices in tree branches to lay their eggs.
Kritsky said the insects act as natural gardeners for mature trees by making holes in branches the size of human fingers.
“This provides natural aeration in summer and allows rain to filter into the soil and trees,” he continued.
‘However, a new shoot will die. When females lay eggs on the branches of young trees, the insects sometimes weaken that branch.
‘The branch will hang there and the leaves will turn brown in what is called a flag.
‘I have seen a young plantation of an oak tree. There were cicadas on all the branches and all the branches were weak. The tree died of hunger.’
Cicadas prefer specific trees such as oak, maple and some fruit trees such as cherry and pear trees.