Over the past few days, in West Virginia and other parts of the United States, the drone of cicadas has been a constant and growing background noise akin to hearing water run through distant pipes or some sort of alien spacecraft hovering just out of sight. As the noise intensifies, it’s getting more maddening.
Make no mistake, excessive background noise like this can be a problem for some, although likely not to an extreme level.
Readers might remember a spate of stories going back to 2016 that dealt with “Havana Syndrome.” The term referred to brain trauma suffered by U.S. diplomats who spent time in Cuba and China, during which they were targeted by sonic weapons.
Some of the problems diplomats described included headaches, trouble sleeping and an inability to focus. Other symptoms included problems with reading and a heightened state of irritability. As CNN reported in 2020, a National Academy of Sciences report found that the diplomats were likely targeted with microwave pulses conducted through radio frequencies.
In at least one case, a U.S. diplomat in Cuba was hosting guests from the States, who asked what the terrible noise was. The diplomat answered that the noise came from cicadas, which the visitors said seemed ridiculous because they’d never heard cicadas like that. Interestingly, the Cuban government also blamed cicadas and crickets for the noise.
Fortunately, the real cicadas many West Virginians are now hearing shouldn’t cause headaches, memory loss or an inability to function. Irritability might be another issue.
Many people find the singing of cicadas in late summer evenings soothing or nostalgic. For some, it’s an indicator that school is about to start, college football is on its way and fall isn’t far off.
What’s different this year is a scientific phenomenon that is just as fascinating as it might be annoying.
There are several types of cicadas. All cicadas live most of their lives underground, then emerge to mate. For some types of cicadas, this happens annually (they produce those familiar summer evening sounds). For others, it only happens once every 17 years. This year, there are three species of cicadas all coming out of the ground around the same time, including the 17-year and 13-year varieties. They are legion and loud, with the males using their bodies as amplifiers for a mating call.
Fortunately, they’re mostly harmless. The noise might be annoying, but cicadas are a rich food source for wildlife and, unlike locusts (with which cicadas are occasionally confused), they don’t eat crops. Plus, they’ll be gone by late summer, and it’ll be a while before anything like this happens again.
