Cicadas' unique emergence is 'remarkable way of avoiding predators'

(WAND) - In just weeks, we can expect to see and hear over one million cicadas.

This year will be a massive emergence of two different broods of cicadas. A 17-year brood and a 13-year brood will cross paths.

The last time this happened was 221 years ago, when Thomas Jefferson was president.

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While seeing a large portion of these big, loud, red-eyed bugs can be scary, there is actually a survival reason for that.

Similar to a school of fish or herd of mammals traveling in the wild. Chris Dietrich, entomologist at the Illinois Natural History Survey said, "They're, you know, they've been here for millions of years. They'll continue to be here and probably long afterward on. But they have this particular strategy that they use of coming out every 13 or 17 years. And it's a pretty remarkable way of avoiding predators. Basically, they, they emerge at these long infrequent intervals, and they overwhelm any predators that happen to be around."

He adds that we should sit back and enjoy this phenomenon. He said they are harmless and the most damage they'll do is to tree twigs.