Why do some places buzz while others stay quiet?

CHICAGO — They emerge. Some steal. And in many places the buzz is already very, very loud.

But other areas around Chicagoland are free of buzzing and clicking.

Why is that?

Marianne Alleyne, assistant professor of entomology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, explains it this way:

“It takes a few days, maybe a week, for adult cicadas to start making noise (their exoskeleton must fully harden). So, eventually, all the places where the cicadas have appeared will hear the noise. Because the emergences did not all occur during the same night, not all areas will begin to hear the sound at the same time. But it will happen soon enough.

So, bottom line: stay tuned.

The emergence of billions of buzzing, clicking cicadas is underway. In northern Illinois, we see the Brood XIII of periodical cicadas born in 2007. Another variety, Brood XIX, is emerging in the central and southern parts of the state. Thomas Jefferson was president when the two generations emerged together for the last time in 1803.

WGN has what you need to know about cicadas and your home, children, pets and garden.

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