Cicada season brings buzzing song back to Illinois trees

It's cicada season in Illinois, and while it's always loud it sure seems like this year may be louder than other seasons.

The buzzing song has been loud and ubiquitous in the last few weeks, as the annual cicadas emerge en masse.

"Two Tuesdays ago, there was so many cicadas emerging that they were actively crawling up us," said Nina Salem. She was at an event in Palmer Square at the time. "One juggler came over to me and was just like, what is this thing?! It was just attached to my leg. And I explained to him it's a cicada nymph. It needs to go on a tree immediately because it needs to emerge."

Salem runs Insect Asylum in Avondale, a unique museum celebrating the world of insects and their vital role in our ecosystem.

"They're very important part of our ecosystem. Down underground while they're maturing, they're turning the soil and breaking down different chemicals within our soil, which is really beneficial for all of our plants," she said.

Salem said the cicadas aren't prevalent during the daytime, but at night they're buzzing. It's inconclusive if they're louder this year, but what we do know is the sound you hear is the male mating call.

"What we're hearing is only half of the cicada population screaming for their lovers because only the male can make noise," Salem said.

"If it seems like they're louder, it's likely that there's more of them," said Kacy Athey, a specialty crop entomologist.

Athey said this summer has been unique because it hasn't been a hot one until this week.

"If with the cool, wet early summer, they can come out over a series during the summer. It's possible what we're seeing is maybe they're coming out all at once. So their timeline is more constricted because it didn't get really warm until later," she said.

Annual cicadas usually sing at dusk. Periodical cicadas, which emerge in cycles of 13 or 17 years, are loudest in the late morning and early afternoon.

"You know, cicadas don't live very long as adults. The males live long enough to sing and mate. Females live long enough to lay eggs and then they largely die. So if they're all out in a shorter period of time, that may also explain why they seem louder," Athey said.

Cicada season typically begins in the late summer and ends in the early fall.