The 17 year cicadas are swarming everywhere. I found a lone tree out in the middle of a prairie, and they were all gathering on this one tree making a huge ambient noise. I am familiar with the annual cicada sound but these 17 year cicadas seem to have a whooping noise as well. From a distance it sounds like some kind of machine, up close it is as loud as a concert with a sort of white noise ringing in your ear. Quite a few kept landing on me, the trick is to not let them sit on you too long otherwise they will try and stick you with a sap sucking mouth part. For the most part they are harmless and will just blunder around bumping into you as they try and find a spot on the tree.
▶️ 3Speak
impressive, I had never heard such a loud noise. We only find the Sigale in the south of the country, further north we have crickets
They only come out every 13th and 17th year and seem to have slight variations in sound. These 17 year guys are way more populated than I remember the 13 year ones being. Good for fishing if the fish were not already full from eating so many.
At home, they sing “cigal” on sunny days to the rhythm of the holidays.
Ah yours even have a different song.
Great video. Sounds like the soundtrack from a '60s sci-fi movie.
Sort of like the ghostbuster's ghostmobile siren multiplied by a million. Poor cicadas got waterlogged by rain the next day.
Fascinating!
Those bugs were having the time of their life.