Cicada-geddon or cicada-palooza — cicadas by the trillion in the US

The last time Brood XIX and Brood XIII emerged from underground at the same time, Thomas Jefferson was president

This year will see Brood XIX, the largest of all periodical cicada groups, emerge after a 13-year dormancy underground at the same time as Brood XIII, a smaller group that appears every 17 years. Picture: AP Photo/University of Connecticut, Chris Simon

They look a little like cockroaches and have bulging orange eyes, and trillions of them are about to erupt from the earth in much of the midwestern and eastern United States. The emergence of two groups of cicadas will assemble a chorus of the insects not seen in several hundred years, experts say.

The simultaneous appearance of the two cicada broods — known as Brood XIX and Brood XIII — is a rare event, not having occurred since 1803, a year when Thomas Jefferson was US president. “It’s really exciting. I’ve been looking forward to this for many years,” said Catherine Dana, an entomologist who specializes in cicadas at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “For the public, it’s going to be a really special experience.” There are thousands of species of cicadas around the world but only 10 are considered periodical — having a life cycle that involves the juvenile cicadas living underground and feeding on plant sap for years before emerging en masse to the surface.