Cicada swarm about to emerge in parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The 17-year cicadas, with their bulging red eyes and deafening mating song, are about to emerge.

The insects have been waiting underground for nearly two decades, and millions of them are about to make their debut around western Pennsylvania, parts of eastern Ohio and a small swath of West Virginia.

Sandy Feather, a horticulture educator with Penn State Extension, tells the Tribune Review it takes several days of temperatures above 60 degrees for them to come out of the ground. Temperatures for the next week around Pittsburgh are forecast to be in the high 60s and low 70s.

Feather says they'll be loud, but they don't pose a threat, except to very young trees.

Adult cicadas don't eat or bite and exist only to mate. They'll all be dead by the end of June.

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