BLACKSBURG, Va. – You may have heard a familiar sound outside in the evenings, or just seen a big bug in your backyard. The “Dog-day” cicadas are back.
These critters are different than the Brood X cicadas that emerge every 17 years.
Virginia Tech Entomologist Eric Day said these bugs come out every year in East Coast states, especially when the weather has been hot like it has been lately.
Day said if you spot one, you’re free to just leave it alone.
“It’s a huge bug, so it does have piercing-sucking mouthparts,” Day said. “It feeds on root systems of trees, and hangs out underground and feeds there and then emerges.”
Day said by October, all of the cicadas should be gone.