Photos: Billions of cicadas ready to take over the East Coast
May 7, 2013
A 13-year cicada peers over a ledge in Chapel Hill, N.C., Wednesday, May 11, 2011. Portions of the southern states are currently experiencing the emergence of the periodic cicadas, which tunnel their way to the surface to shed their skin and mate after 13 years underground. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome) ( Cicadas Return )
A child holds up a cicada in Alexandria, Virginia 14 May 2004. The cicadas have emerged after 17 years and they expected to populate the mid-Atlantic area of the United States. (STEPHEN JAFFE/AFP/Getty Images) ( WAS2004051406637 )
\A newly emerged adult cicada sheds its exoskeleton on a tree May 16, 2004 in Reston, Virginia. After 17-years living below ground, billions of cicadas belonging to Brood X begin to emerge across much of the eastern United States. The cicadas shed their larval skin, spread their wings, and fly out to mate making a tremendous noise in the process. (Photo by Richard Ellis/Getty Images) ( 50839127RE006_Cicadas )
An exoskeleton of a 13-year cicada clings to a tree in Chapel Hill, N.C., Wednesday, May 11, 2011. Portions of the southern states are currently experiencing the emergence of the periodic cicadas, which tunnel their way to the surface to shed their skin and mate after 13 years underground. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome) ( Cicadas Return )
Adult cicadas dry their wings on leaves May 16, 2004 in Reston, Virginia. After 17-years living below ground, billions of cicadas belonging to Brood X are beginning to emerge across much of the eastern United States. The cicadas shed their larval skin, spread their wings, and fly out to mate, making a tremendous noise in the process. (Photo by Richard Ellis/Getty Images) ( 50839127RE005_Cicadas )
Dozens of exoskeletons belonging to newly emerged adult cicadas lie under a tree May 16, 2004 in Reston, Virginia. After 17-years living below ground, billions of cicadas belonging to Brood X begin to emerge across much of the eastern United States. The cicadas shed their larval skin, spread their wings, and fly out to mate making a tremendous noise in the process. (Photo by Richard Ellis/Getty Images) ( 50839127RE007_Cicadas )
After a 17-year nap one of the newly emerged Cicadas is seen drying it's wings after shedding it's skin in a suburban Washington yard, Saturday, May 15, 2004,. Trillions of red-eyed insects are crawling their way above ground in 14 states and the nation's capital. Loudmouthed and ugly, the cicadas will fly clumsily into pets, bushes and unwitting pedestrians as they engage in a frenetic mating ritual that lasts well into June. Then they'll disappear for another 17 years. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds) ( CICADA MANIA )
A cicada climbs a tree in Princeton, N.J., Tuesday, June 1, 2004. This cicada, a species of the grasshopper-like insect best known for the scratching, screeching "singing" of the males, lives underground and emerges every 17 years. The cicadas began appearing in parts of New Jersey early last month and will likely remain until early next month, officials say. (AP Photo/Daniel Hulshizer) ( PERIODICAL CICADAS )
A newly emerged adult cicada dries its wings on a tree May 16, 2004 at a park in Washington, DC. After 17-years of living below ground, billions of cicadas belonging to Brood X begin to emerge across much of the eastern United States. The cicadas shed their larval skin, spread their wings, and fly out to mate making a tremendous noise in the process. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) ( 50835412AW011_cicadas )
Newly emerged adult cicadas dry their wings May 16, 2004 at a park in Washington, DC. After 17-years of living below ground, billions of cicadas belonging to Brood X begin to emerge across much of the eastern United States. The cicadas shed their larval skin, spread their wings, and fly out to mate making a tremendous noise in the process. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) ( 50835412AW008_cicadas )
After a 17-year nap, Cicadas climb up a telephone pole Sunday, May 16, 2004 in Annandale, Va. Trillions of red-eyed insects are crawling their way above ground in 14 states and the nation's capital. Loudmouthed and ugly, the cicadas will fly clumsily into pets, bushes and unwitting pedestrians as they engage in a frenetic mating ritual that lasts well into June. Then they'll disappear for another 17 years. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds) ( CICADA MANIA )
A 13-year cicada clings to a plant in Chapel Hill, N.C., Wednesday, May 11, 2011. Portions of the southern states are currently experiencing the emergence of the periodic cicadas, which tunnel their way to the surface to shed their skin and mate after 13 years underground. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome) ( Cicadas Return )
Exoskeleton's belonging to newly emerged adult cicadas hang from a leaf on a tree in Reston, Virginia May 15, 2004. After 17-years living below ground, billions of cicadas belonging to Brood X begin to emerge across much of the eastern United States. The cicadas shed their larval skin, spread their wings, and fly out to mate making a tremendous noise in the process. (Photo by Richard Ellis/Getty Images) ( 50839127RE001_Cicadas )
After a 17-year nap this Cicada sheds his skin, Sunday, May 16, 2004. in Annandale, Va. Trillions of red-eyed insects are crawling their way above ground in 14 states and the nation's capital. Loudmouthed and ugly, the cicadas will fly clumsily into pets, bushes and unwitting pedestrians as they engage in a frenetic mating ritual that lasts well into June. Then they'll disappear for another 17 years. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds) ( CICADA MANIA )
A crabapple tree branch is covered with cassini cicadas, Wednesday, June 9, 2004, in Newport, Pa. In the mountains of central Pennsylvania cicada courtship is just now reaching its peak after a 17-year wait. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) ( SOUND OF CICADAS )
A newly emerged adult cicada dries its wings on a tree May 16, 2004 at a park in Washington, DC. After 17-years of living below ground, billions of cicadas belonging to Brood X begin to emerge across much of the eastern United States. The cicadas shed their larval skin, spread their wings, and fly out to mate making a tremendous noise in the process. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) ( 50835412AW010_cicadas )
After a 17-year nap a pair of newly emerged Cicadas are seen in a suburban Washington yard. Trillions of red-eyed insects are crawling their way, Saturday, May 15, 2004, above ground in 14 states and the nation's capital. Loudmouthed and ugly, the cicadas will fly clumsily into pets, bushes and unwitting pedestrians as they engage in a frenetic mating ritual that lasts well into June. Then they'll disappear for another 17 years. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds) ( CICADA MANIA )
An empty, nymphal skin of a cicada remains clinging to a leaf following the hatch of Brood XIII June 11, 2007 in Willow Springs, Illinois. The periodical cicadas are among the millions in the area that have emerged from the ground and taken to the trees during the past couple of weeks as part of their 17-year hatch cycle. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images) ( 74539472SO008_Cicadas_Retur )
A cicada crawls around on the white markings of a parking space Friday, May 28, 2004, in Gainesville, Va. The cicadas emerged earlier this spring after living underground for 17 years on sap from tree roots. (AP Photo/Sean M. Bush) ( CICADA INVASION )
An employee of the Chicago Botanic Garden uses a shovel to reveal holes left in the ground left by emerging cicadas Monday, May 14, 2007, in Glencoe, Ill. Almost all members of a cicada group, or brood, burst from the ground within a couple days of each other quickly climbing to the nearest vertical surface to molt and unroll their wings.(AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast) ( Cicada Invasion )
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