What only appears in eastern North America every 17 years is about to appear in parts of Michigan this month, but the one place you won't see this rare phenomenon in is Lansing.

Scientifically titled as the Magicicada Septendecim, and classified as Brood IX, cicadas bugs are due to rise out of ground in swarms after living there for the past 17 years.

"This is a phenomenon that doesn't occur anywhere else in the world," said Dr. Thomas Moore, a University of Michigan expert on cicadas.

The cicadas have the longest adult-to-adult life cycle of any known animal. They feed off the sap from roots and trees underground and the bugs, estimated to rise around May 15, will then have a six-week mating period where hundreds of eggs will be laid across the twigs and branches of trees across eastern North America.

People of Lansing will miss out on the rare occurrence.

"It's just by chance," Moore said. "There have never been records of the bugs appearing in Lansing."

Unified, the insects create one of nature's loudest sounds known through their mating call, which is the vibration of abdominal drums called timbals. By July 6 it is estimated the cicadas will be gone.

Their eggs will remain on the twigs of trees until the branches break off and the bugs then should hatch on the ground where they dig their way into the soil and spend their 17 years there.

MSU Professor Howard Russell said that part of the phenomenon associated with these bugs is how they appear simultaneously in sheer billions, they are due to rise out of the ground and mate.

Because the bugs manage to live underground for such a long period, sucking upon the sap of roots, Moore said the appearance of the bugs is a sign of a healthy forest, which has kept them alive for this long.

Meanwhile, if Lansing-area residents want to see the bugs, they are due to appear in Washtenaw and Lenawee counties, and possibly even parts of Ann Arbor within the next few weeks.