Have immediate plans to visit South Carolina? If you’re headed to Newberry County, take earplugs. The sheriff’s department has been besieged with callers wanting to know what all the noise is. Put simply, its Bugageddon.
Siren, whine, or roar—It’s all part of Bugageddon
In response to the inquiries, the Newberry County Sheriff’s Office has taken to its Facebook page to explain. “We have had several calls about a noise in the air that sounds like a siren, or a whine, or a roar. The sound is cicadas.” Parts of South Carolina are under a double cicada hatch. We wrote earlier about a hatch up North.
As we warned back in January, the cicada Bugageddon can be unnerving. “Cicadas are the stuff of a horror film. They’ll light up your screen with bloodshot eyes. And an audio track? A single cicada has a scream that will curdle your blood. Now imagine thousands, tens of thousands, millions of the little buggers going off in your ears, simultaneously.”
That’s just a single hatch. It can be many years between the laying of cicada eggs and when they finally hatch. As the sheriff’s office mentioned, in this case, one hatch—that comes every 13 years—has simultaneously come forth with a hatch laid 17 years ago. Double your pleasure, double your fun, said the old gum commercial. Only if you’re a cicada. Scientists who study cicada hatches often wear hearing protection to handle the noise level.
“It’s the sounds of nature”
Local deputies report they’ve been flagged down by concerned citizens asking about the noise. They probably had to shout to be heard. But as the official Facebook post says, “The nymphs have lived underground for 13-17 years and now this time they are hatching. Although to some, the noise is annoying, they pose no danger to humans or pets. Unfortunately, it is the sounds of nature.”
Bugageddon indeed.
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Instead of ignorant fear mongering, perhaps highlighting the miracle of one of God’s creatures, that emerges after 17 YEARS buried in the dark! Think H. Sapiens could pull a feat like that off? The hubris displayed here is truly astounding.
Ah yes, that annoying sound of human hubris. I heard a highlight from those silly girls on “The View” that perhaps the Cicadas and the recent Eclipse were possibly both related to climate change. Now that’s hubris, 165 million years of naturally occuring Cicadas hatching could now somehow be climate related….. combined with a planetary occurance dating back even further than 165 mm years …. earthquakes anyone….. volcanos……?
Good article Russ and Tina, thanks for the fun read today.
“Ignorant fear mongering,” Elliot? We’re explaining how noisy the cicadas can be and what local folks are dealing with. You call that “fear mongering”? I also don’t see how this report qualifies as “hubris.” Yes, it’s fascinating, but no, it’s not fear mongering or hubris.🤔 –Diane at RVtravel.com
Thank you, Russ and Tina! 🙂 Cicadas are just part of the night time sounds that are part and parcel of the South (other places, too? I did not know that. 🙂 ). Apparently the ones in South Carolina must have loudspeakers. 😉 No, just a whole lot of them? Oh, okay. I sit corrected. 😉 🙂 Thanks for passing along the news and safe travels! 🙂
Thought I should add that the cicadas are protected from local noise ordinances as being “naturally occurring.” (With the local TV stations broadcasting that the cicadas were coming for months now, I found it humorous that the police were called. Did the caller think there is an on/off switch?)