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‘Straggler’ cicadas may appear this year: Here’s where

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by Addy Bink - 04/12/26 11:00 AM ET

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by Addy Bink - 04/12/26 11:00 AM ET

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Video above: Cicada superfans eat the bugs, use them in art, and more, in 2024.

(NEXSTAR) – After a busy few years for cicada broods emerging, 2026 will seem like a quiet year in much of the U.S.

Two years ago, a double awakening of two broods led to a “cicada-geddon,” with the noisy, “honeydew”-producing insects infiltrating much of the eastern U.S. Last year, a single brood awoke from its 17-year slumber to buzz in a handful of states.

Unfortunately for cicada hunters, no major broods are expected to emerge this year.

You may still spot a periodical cicada, though. They’re known, aptly, as stragglers.

Periodical cicadas and a bee fly among the tree tops at Valley View Nature Preserve, Saturday, May 24, 2025, in Milford, Ohio. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

These cicadas, sometimes described as being off-cycle, appear when their brood is not expected to emerge. They may appear in a region known to be home to a different brood, too, according to the University of Connecticut.

Typically, straggler cicadas can be seen within one year or four years of their brood’s emergence, Michael Skvarla, an assistant research professor and head of the Insect Identification Laboratory at Penn State University, told Nexstar. (Research shows straggler cicadas may appear at other increments as well.)

“Occasionally, you’ll get some 17-year cicadas that pop out at 13 [years], which is probably how the 13-year cicada broods evolved,” Skvarla explained, adding that the cicadas may also appear four years after their expected emergence at the 21-year mark.

Why, you may ask?

“We don’t know, precisely,” Skvarla said.

It could be that they’ve lost track of time. Cicadas count the years – though “we don’t know how they keep track,” Skvarla noted, explaining that it is known that they can detect sap flowing in spring and fall.

If there is a warm spell in late winter or early spring, followed by a bout of cold, that can trick the trees and cause sap to flow. The cicadas may mistakenly count that as a full year, according to Skvarla. Periodical cicadas that appear one year before or after their scheduled emergence may have “counted wrong” or been tricked by an “extra sap flow.”

Less is known about what causes cicadas to appear four years before or after their brood time. There’s also no clear explanation as to why broods emerge on 13- and 17-year schedules.

“Both of those are prime numbers, so we think it may have something to do [with it],” he explained. “With them being prime numbers, 13 and 17-year cicada broods rarely sync up.” One such occurrence happened during the “cicada-geddon” in 2024, when Brood XIX, a 13-year brood, and Brood XIII, a 17-year brood, emerged at the same time.

Because cicadas rarely emerge, and because broods are in different areas of the country, they’re difficult to study, Skvarla said. What is known, though, is that periodical cicadas emerge in the masses that they do as “predator avoidance,” allowing many to survive despite birds and mammals feasting on them.

“That doesn’t work when you’re a straggler,” Skvarla explained. “They wake up and are getting eaten pretty immediately.”

Any straggler cicadas waking up one year early or late this year could be from Brood XIV, a 17-year brood that emerged last year in West Virginia, Virginia, and North Carolina, and Brood XXII, 13-year cicadas scheduled to emerge in parts of Louisiana and Mississippi in 2027.

Stragglers waking up four years off schedule are likely part of Brood II, 17-year cicadas set to appear in 2030 in parts of Connecticut, Georgia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

Because the straggler cicadas are short-lived, you likely will not hear the large choruses associated with major emergences, according to Skvarla. You may hear some, “if you know what you’re listening for,” he added, “but it’s not going to be like the deafening chorus you get in a normal emergence here.”

If you’re missing the periodical cicadas, mark your calendar for 2027: Brood XXII is set to emerge from its 13-year sleep in Louisiana, Mississippi, Kentucky, and Ohio. Then in 2028, Brood XXIII will emerge for the first time since 2015 in Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, and Tennessee.

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