WE WILL HAVE SURVIVED YET ANOTHER CICADA PLAGUE.
Since biblical times, we’ve been periodically visited by swarms of winged creatures emerging like zombies from the ground. In modern America, the most loathsome of these is a gang of cicadas known as Brood X. Its members are living underground right now sucking on tasty tree roots, but in 2021, after 17 years underfoot, the critters will claw out of the dirt to breed. Brood X will be so big that, in the Northeast, there could be 1.5 million cicadas for every acre—and they will be singing love songs for weeks. The invasion won’t be a threat to crops, but stock up on earplugs: A treeful of buzzing cicadas can top 100 decibels.