By Jordan King
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Videos posted on social media show the long-anticipated cicada invasion of the U.S. happening in real-time.
In a coincidence not seen since 1803, two periodical cicada broods have begun to emerge from their underground homes as they come out of hibernation in the central-eastern Midwest at the same time.
Since the beginning of May, people have been sharing clips of the so-called "cicada-geddon," where the instantly recognizable sound of the insects has been described as "deafening" by those nearby.
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One person wrote on Reddit that it was "very hard to properly describe just how loud this sounds in person" while another commented: "Never heard anything like it in my life."
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As many as a 100 trillion periodical cicadas are expected to come out this year, researchers at the University of Connecticut previously estimated.
This is because Brood XIX, which has a 13-year cycle and nests across a swathe of the mid-South from southern Iowa to the Carolinas, and Brood XIII, which has a 17-year cycle and nests between central Illinois and southern Wisconsin, are arising together.
By May 5, cicadas had been spotted in Charlotte, South Carolina, and North Carolina, local news outlet KKTV reported at the time.
Since then, places where people say they have seen the insects are also in Nashville, Tennessee, and Missouri, including St. Louis.
Together, the two broods are expected to emerge across 17 states.
A new Cicada Safari app, which lets users track where they see cicadas in real-time, reports that Brood XIII "is emerging in large numbers in southern Illinois and Missouri," while Brood XIX "finally made its appearance near Peoria, Illinois."
Cicada expert Gene Kritsky, who is a professor in the Department of Biology at Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati, Ohio, told USA Today that folks have posted almost 18,000 photographs on the app this year.
While it does not look like the broods are overlapping, they have been logged in the same region.
Scientists have encouraged Americans to embrace the "natural phenomenon" with curiosity and humor.
Co-lead of the Entomology Department at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, Floyd Shockley also told USA Today: "Cicadas are sort of goofy. They're not super-great flyers and they're kind of awkward when they land.
"They don't bite, they're not poisonous. If your pet eats one it's not going to harm them. They're totally harmless to humans and domestic animals."
His museum is one of several places which have even started selling merchandise for the event, with the broods illustrated on T-shirts, cushions, socks, water bottles and more.
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