As you may have noticed… Periodical cicadas are one of the loudest insects on earth.
The males’ call can be as loud as a lawn mower.
Cicadas make the sound by flexing their abs about three-hundred-and-90 times per second.
Jennifer Filipiak is a wildlife biologist at Lake County Forest Preserve.
FILIPIAK: They have a special organ called tymbals that are in their abdomen. And they have a hollow abdomen. And these tymbals, if you can imagine like if you press your finger into a pop can and it makes that click, and then it pops back out when you release your finger, that’s what the tymbal organ does.
The males sing from morning until evening.
And their mating call can reach 100 decibels.
Luckily, they don’t sing much when it’s cool and dark, so we should all be able to get some sleep.