Connecticut and New York residents will not experience the “cicada invasion” expected in the Midwest this summer.
That’s according to Sacred Heart University biology professor James Loving Lichtenstein, who said cicadas will still be around the Northeast this year — but only the annual broods, not the periodical ones. The Midwest will see both.
“Illinois is going to have millions of cicadas showing, they're going to be shrieking and all over the trees everywhere. In the past, they've been called locusts because they emerge in these big swarms,” Loving Lichtenstein said. “Connecticut isn't due for another emergence till 2030.”
He said one bug that the Northeast will see again this year is the spotted lanternfly — the invasive reddish bug that can kill plants and damage ecosystems.
“Cicadas look similar but are a lot bigger than the lanternflies,” Loving Lichtenstein said. “They are sort of related insects. They kind of feed in similar ways. They both like to drink sap from trees.”
One difference is the danger to plants — cicadas are mostly harmless.
