Cicadas Get Noisy In Ballantyne After 13 Years Underground

BALLANTYNE, N.C. — After spending 13-years underground, cicada brood XIX is ready for some fresh air in North Carolina. Some Ballantyne residents however, are ready for the bugs to go back into hiding.

Peace and quiet is hard to come by in in the area right now thanks to that 13-year-old brood of cicadas popping out of the ground and causing a loud sound.

Brothers Jacob and Bennett Crawley have been dealing with the bugs for nearly three weeks now and say they have barely been able to hear their own thoughts when outside.

“If UFO’s ever came overhead and aliens were invading, that’s the sound they would make,” Jacob said when describing the sound the cicadas make.

The two hope the bugs return back to the ground soon, and say the cicadas have left behind molted skin everywhere around their home. The brothers add they find cicadas all over their home, door step, and yard.

Experts say these bugs aren’t harmful to people or plants. The cicadas only pop out of the ground to reproduce, after which the adults will lay eggs, die off, and allow the next cicada generation to restart the cycle all over again.

The 13-year-old brood isn’t the only group of cicadas emerging according to experts who say
a 17-year-old brood will also arrive in Illinois. Co-emergence like that only happens once every 221 years.