Cicadas are making so much noise that residents are calling the police in South Carolina
Emerging cicadas are so loud in one South Carolina county that residents are calling the sheriff's office asking why they can hear a "noise in the air that sounds like a siren, or a whine, or a roar."
The Newberry County Sheriff's Office posted a message on Facebook on Tuesday letting people know that the whining sound is just the male cicadas singing to attract mates after more than a decade of being dormant.
Some people have even flagged down deputies to ask what the noise is all about, Newberry County Sheriff Lee Foster said.
The noisiest cicadas were moving around the county of about 38,000 people, about 40 miles northwest of Columbia, prompting calls from different locations as Tuesday wore on, Foster said.
Their collective songs can be as loud as jet engines and scientists who study them often wear earmuffs to protect their hearing.
After Tuesday, Foster understands why.
"Although to some, the noise is annoying, they pose no danger to humans or pets," Foster wrote in his statement to county residents. "Unfortunately, it is the sounds of nature." Flourish logoA Flourish map
Cicadas are already emerging in southern states, like South Carolina, where it warms up faster, while in cooler states, such as those in the upper Midwest, they might not emerge until June.
This year, two broods of cicadas are emerging: Brood XIX, which comes out every 13 years, will emerge in Georgia and the Southeast, and Brood XIII, which emerges every 17 years, will appear in Illinois.
This will be the first time since 1803 that two broods emerged simultaneously. The next time this happens will be 2037. With this convergence, the bugs will arrive in numbers that have not been seen in generations.
The dual cicada brood emergence will primarily be seen in parts of Illinois and Iowa, as well as parts of Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia.
I never realized there were so many different broods until looking into this about a month ago. They are also very geographical, so it's a "right place/right time" thing, almost like the eclipse.
The great news for me is we booked our large family reunion at a resort in Virginia, in late June, which could be on the edge of some serious chicanery.
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In 2037, Brood VI of the periodical cicadas is expected to emerge in the United States. Brood VI is another one of the 17-year cicadas. There are 15 broods of 17-year periodical cicadas (Magicicada species) in the United States. These broods are designated by Roman numerals and emerge in different years across various regions of the country. Each brood has a distinct geographic range and emergence schedule. Additionally, there are three broods of 13-year periodical cicadas, making a total of 18 broods of periodical cicadas in the United States.
(Two seperate questions I posed to Chat GPT, which saved me 38 hours of scouring Giggle)
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