Periodical cicadas have begun emerging slowly over the last two weeks, but the mass surge could happen this weekend or early next week, according to Christopher Maier, entomologist at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station.

Maier said Friday that the warm weather over the last few days is likely to have warmed the ground enough to spark the emergence. Up until now, the few who have come out of their underground burrows after 17 years are in open areas that get more sun, and in areas near septic tanks where the ground is artificially warm. The vast majority of the population lives in forested areas in the south central part of the state along traprock and basalt rock ridges ridges.