Latest local news, weather and high school sports for Tri-State area

HANNIBAL, MO. -- The Tri-States is being invaded by red eyed creatures that only show up once every 13 years.

There are billions of cicadas filling the trees in parts of the Tri-States.

We talked with Dr. Gerald Burkett , an entomologist (or insect expert) with Hannibal LaGrange University.

He says brood of 13 year cicadas are back after living years underground.

Cicadas are most known for their clicking noise, which is actually the male love song that attracts females during their mating season.

Mating happens like clockwork - every 13 years when the bugs emerge from living in the ground, climb trees and shed their exoskeleton.

Then females lay their eggs inside of slits they make in tree branches.

The adult cicadas will only live another couple of weeks.

Then their eggs will fall to the ground and their babies will live in the ground until the next 13 years until they grow to adulthood and the whole process starts again.

Dr. Gerald Burkett says there is always a cicada brood popping up somewhere in the country.  That's because there are so many broods and species all over the country.  Dr. Burkett says it gets complicated.  The U.S. has 3 species and five broods of 13 year cicadas,  There are three species and 14 broods of 17-year cicadas.  Dr. Burkett says sometimes two broods come out at once, which means a really noisy time for their human neighbors.

The bugs don't bite ... they eat tree sap.

That isn't really a problem for most trees.

The main damage is to fruit trees...when the female cicadas damage the branches when laying their eggs.