Illinois’ Cicada Invasion Could Trigger an Enormous STD Outbreak

Billions of cicadas will be covering the entire state of Illinois this spring. Two periodic broods will emerge together and mate for the first time in over 200 years. You'll find eggs laid on wood surfaces and trees everywhere. Also, discover the sexually transmitted pathogen that turns male cicadas into sex-driven zombies.

Cicada Apocolypse 2024

I love that this will soon be trending, #Cicadapocolypse2024 but part of what's coming is disgusting and I almost wish I could unlearn it.

Let's start here. Nobody will see the kind of cicada numbers that Illinois residents will, this spring.

Why Are So Many Cicadas Emerging This Year in Illinois

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Illinois will be blanketed by cicadas this year as two different periodic broods have synchronized their emergence. They didn't plan it in the war room, it's just a math thing.

Periodical cicadas crawl out in 17- and 13-year cycles and these two groups coming this spring, Brood XIII and Brood XIX — appear at the same time only once every 221 years.

Illinois is the only state where these two broods will emerge together.

RELATED: [UPDATE] Cicada Numbers In Illinois Will Be Enormous And Disgusting

What Cicadas Do Once They Emerge

Once the male cicadas shake off their exoskeletons, they start making all that annoying noise trying to attract a mate.

Cicadas have only one purpose once they come up out of the ground, survival of the next generation.

Billions of cicadas will be mating all around us. Cicadas lay an average of 200-400 eggs. That's a lot of eggs on your trees and your deck this year. And as gross as that sounds, it's not the grossest thing.

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MOST DISGUSTING CICADA FACT

Today is the day you first heard that sexually transmitted diseases are a BIG problem in the cicada world too, not just ours.

At its worst, the sexually transmitted pathogen (fungus) will begin to eat away at the male cicada's abdomen and genitalia causing them both to FALL OFF.

MORE: Wisconsin City With One Of Highest STD Rates In US

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Left in place of his stomach and sex organs is a lump of fungal matter. That matter turns the male cicada into a mad, sex-driven zombie, now only mating to spread the fungus, not to reproduce.

There's also this thing about cicada pee, but I'm too disgusted to share anything more, so you can see that fact here.

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