fbpx
Skip to content Where Legends Are Made

No, Tuscaloosa Isn’t Going to Be Overrun With Cicadas…Yet

Maybe you’ve seen the headlines: soon, hundreds of millions of cicadas will emerge after 17 years of living underground and swarm cities all over the eastern United States.

That is certainly true, but a University of Alabama expert says the pending plague of periodical cicadas that has been dominating the news cycle won’t be a problem in Tuscaloosa — at least, not yet.

Dr. John Abbott, the director of museum research and collections at the University, said the 2020 brood of periodical cicadas will infest Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina.

“The numbers we’re talking about are millions of periodical cicadas in the range of about 1.5 million per acre,” Abbot said.  “I’m sure some people will equate their emergence to an apocalyptic plague, unfortunately, but it is what it is.”