Cool Photos of a Cicada Breaking Free from Its Shell

UPDATED: Tuesday, July 12th, 2022

The cicadas are emerging here in the tristate. I was standing outside talking to a friend of mine the other day and one crawled out of the ground right at our feet. And, like they do, it immediately started to climb up into the nearest tree. If you've been outside in the last week or so, you know it's getting really noisy and we have those little critters to thanks.

2021 was even noisier. Last year, the Brood X cicadas emerged after being underground for the seventeen years.

Well, check out these photos! My friend Sonja Simpson Davis happened to be in the right place at the right time. Her son Wil was home for a visit and was out walking the family dog. It was roughly 10:30pm or so. He happened across a cicada right as it was trying to break free from its larva shell. He managed to snap a pic, albeit a blurry one, to show his mom. But Sonja had to see this for herself.

So, she went outside and took these incredible photos!

Photos of a Cicada Breaking Free from Its Shell

The Brood X cicadas are emerging after seventeen years and they're shedding their larva shells all over the tristate. Here's what it looks like as they do it!

I've gotta say! Those photos are REALLY cool.

As a matter of fact, Sonja shared with me that's EXACTLY what her son was saying too as the watched and photographed. She says Wil kept saying, "That's so cool! And so disgusting!!"

And, you know? Wil may be right. It's definitely cool, but it's also a little freaky looking. I guarantee you that, as more and more cicadas emerge, we're going to be seeing some more incredible photos of them. The Brood X cicadas produced some amazing photos. This year's batch is doing the same.

In case you're unfamiliar with cicadas, each group of cicadas is called a "brood" and each group is labeled with a Roman numeral. And, yes. There are cicadas in the tristate every single year. However, this year's crop (or brood), is in the process of busting up out of the ground. And they're doing it for the first time in seventeen years. It was predicted we would see millions of them in Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois and it seems like they are definitely keeping that promise and leaving their mark on the tristate.

What can I say? I guess this true of the cicada in Sonja's yard and the rest of them as well. They're shells of what they used to be.