By Kristina Goetz
The Cincinnati Enquirer

DELHI TOWNSHIP - Now that the average ground temperature has topped 64 degrees for the first time this year, all that's needed for the onslaught of the Brood X cicadas is a soaking rain.

A Brood X 17 yr. cicada, still in the nymph stage, crawls from a hole in a Clifton yard Monday. (Gary Landers photo)

That's the prediction from Gene Kritsky, professor of biology at the College of Mount St. Joseph and authority on cicadas, which are about to emerge.

With showers in the forecast all week, Greater Cincinnatians could see the red-eyed bugs any day. At the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport Monday, 0.24 inches of rain was recorded and some parts of Hamilton County received a half-inch of rain.

"It's not much at all, actually," said Robin Gerhardt, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Wilmington. "A good thunderstorm in the summer can bring up to an inch or more."

Kritsky said the average soil temperature Monday at the 15 sites he checks was 65 degrees. While the bugs begin to emerge when the soil temperature reaches 64 degrees, the ground is too hard for them to dig through.

About a half-dozen cicadas emerged Sunday night at one of the test sites around Cincinnati, Kritsky said. It just takes the right conditions, he said.

"We've got the soil at the right temperature and the rain," he said. "They come out to mate, so maybe some Frank Sinatra would do the trick."

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E-mail kgoetz@enquirer.com