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Periodical Cicada to Hit the Chicago Area
Produced by City Room on Monday, April 09, 2007
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Coming this May to a wooded area near you is an insect invasion of a kind not seen in 17 years.
That's the sound of the periodical cicada, which is scheduled to surface from beneath the ground in the Chicago area this summer.
Jennifer Filipiak, a wildlife biologist with the Lake County Forest Preserves says cicadas are harmless, but their presence will be hard to ignore.
Filipiak: One cicada can make a call up to 90 decibels, which is about the level of a kitchen blender. So, if you can imagine a million cicadas making a noise as audible as a kitchen blender, you can imagine how loud and disruptive that could be.
Filipiak says the insects are expected to emerge in early May. They will climb up the trees, shed their skeletons, mate, lay eggs and die two- to- six weeks later. The tiny offspring then burrow back into the ground for 17 more years.
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