Cicadas: The loudest bugs in the world
May 21, 2007 by cynthia
OK, so maybe they’re not the loudest, but if they’re not I’d hate to hear whoever is.
The cicadas are coming to the midwest again this summer, as they do every 17 years. If you’ve ever experienced a cicada hatching, you’ve witnessed one of the loudest free-for-all orgies on the planet, and it’s about to happen again.
When last they visited, Mom and I decided to drive east across the midwest to visit relatives. (Gosh, Mom, has it been THAT long….?) As we headed through Tennessee and Kentucky, in a fully insulated car with the air conditioner on and lots to talk about, we kept getting interrupted by a roaring noise outside the car.
At first, we thought it was road noise, but it never varied the way overgrown trucks and motorcycles do. When we pulled off at a rest stop and got out, we realized we’d been driving through miles and miles of mating cicadas.
The roar (and the smell) was overwhelming and unrelenting–nowhere you could go to get away from it. The critters themselves were fascinating, and easy to study; wait a couple of minutes and they’d start using your hair as a singles bar.
Ultimately, though, the noise got to us and we left. We brushed the cicadas from our clothes, our hair, slammed the car doors shut, turned on the radio loud, and crunched our way out of the swarm. When the sound died it was one of the more blessed silences I’ve heard. On the trip back I think the swarm was over (or at least I’ve mercifully shut it out of my memory if it wasn’t).
Scientists say the simultaneous hatching is a survival mechanism; these bugs don’t have much in the way of protective gear–no teeth, poison, camouflage, etc.–and so they survive by coming out in force. Somewhat akin to a demonstrator saying “the police can’t arrest ALL of us,” the cicadas apparently believe that if they hatch all at once, by the millions, predators will eat to the point of exhaustion and collapse. This leaves the fortunate latebloomers to propagate for the next 17-year bash.
Definitely one time where it pays to come in last, I guess. Anyway, have fun, midwest!
--
those are glue sticks stacked on one another.
Is that correct??
LoL
Tracey
Yes, Tracey…so far NOBODY has gotten it wrong. And I thought it was going to be difficult (pout, pout…)
OK…now I’m going to find something really tough!
[...] swarms are back in the news. I find them fascinating, mostly because, years back, Mom and I had our own swarming adventure with cicadas. It was a tireless, unrelenting orgy of bugs blanketing Kentucky and Tennesee, so loud you [...]