This year's cicada invasion will not include our end of Kentucky

Another generation of screaming cicadas are getting ready to crawl out of the ground again this spring, but our local area will probably miss the party. 

The latest 17-year brood, Brood XIV, is only a couple of weeks away from descending on most of Kentucky and Tennessee, but western Kentucky and southern Illinois will be left out of this invasion for the most part. 

Brood XIV is one of 15 recognized broods of periodical cicadas that emerge every 13 or 17 years. Last appearing in 2008, they emerge when the soil temperature reaches 64 degrees.

This group of cicadas is sometimes known as the Pilgrim's Brood because the emergence of the flying insects was first recorded in 1634 by William Bradford, the second governor of Plymouth Colony.

It's the nation's second largest periodical cicada brood and its emergence will be witnessed by a good portion of the eastern United States.

North Carolina is already starting to report emergences. Northern Georgia and central Tennessee should get busy next week and then the following week of May will see occurrences in northern Tennessee and southern Kentucky.

Over the centuries, the location of cicada broods has changed slowly. The insects themselves rarely travel more than a mile or so from where they emerge. One determining factor of the bugs disappearing from an area involves the removal of forests, as the cicadas need trees to survive – be it as part of their mating ritual or as their food source while they are underground.

This can also apply to Mother Nature having a hand in removing trees. 

For example, historic flooding caused by Helene in western North Carolina, where cicadas from Brood XIV are supposed to emerge this year, uprooted countless trees and wiped out large areas of forest last fall.

Whether the cicada emergence in the Tarheel State will be affected is yet to be seen.

After this spring, the next major brood, XXIII, won't reappear until 2028 throughout the Mississippi River valley.