With 90-degree days, cicadas will take over the DC area

WASHINGTON (7News) — They’re big, clumsy and harmless to humans without the means to bite or sting and soon, if not already out where you live, cicadas will take over the DMV thanks to the recent rise in temperature.

“With these 90 degree days, the soil will get warm, they’re coming,” said Cindy Smith, Ph.D. an associate professor of Environmental Science and Policy at George Mason University.

RELATED| 'Be silly': Arlington photographer places cicadas in everyday settings for photoshoots

“Like hey, you guys going to the party? I’m going to the party. I’ll just wait, because if you come out first, the chance of you getting eaten is so high. You want to come out all together.”

She says it’s a party they’ve been waiting 17 years to attend.

Once they make their way up the trees, their music will begin to play.

“The males are going to start singing. The females are going to start wing flapping and that’s where they’re getting it on up in the trees,” said Smith.

That, however, is only the beginning of the process.

“The adults, once they mate and they breed and she lays eggs, they do die and they’ll be falling out of trees. And that’s where people are kind of like, oh cicadas are falling. But you just move them to the base of the tree. They’re a nice nitrogen source as they decay and it’s just fine,” she said.

Smith says the entire process could be over by the end of June as the next generation waits another 17 years to repeat the process.

RELATED | Entomologist Dr. Buggs explains how Brood X cicadas are actually 'magic'

Now is the time to take it all in even those who may have some hesitation.

“A lot of people don’t like bugs but insect empathy, we should love bugs. Over 30 percent of our crops are pollinated by insects, so we should be in tune with them,” she says.