20 Jarring Photos Showing Massive Cicada Pile in Residential Neighborhood

The cicada invasion of 2024 was predicted to be bad, but did you expect piles of the insects in your neighborhood?

A photographer has captured images of cicadas taking over a neighborhood in Park Ridge, Illinois. The suburb is approximately 20 miles outside of downtown Chicago.

For those that have somehow missed the swarm of cicada news coverage in recent months, we are currently in the middle of a rather rare occurrence that finds the creatures emerging from the ground.

NBC News describes it by explaining one brood of cicadas that lives on a 13-year cycle is emerging at the same time as a different brood that lives on a 17-year cycle. The last time these two broods emerged at the same time and overlapped was 1803.

READ MORE: How Cicada Urine Is Showering The U.S.

Portions of Illinois are right in the middle of what some might call the worst of the cicada action. The state is a bit of a meeting point for the two broods.

According to estimates from several who study cicadas, they swarm should end up numbering in the billions. If the photos below are any indications, we're well on our way to that estimate this year.