
Get ready, NJ: Noisy 17-year cicadas are coming out this spring
The last time it happened was the year Barack Obama became the nation’s first black president. Jon Corzine was in the middle of his only term as governor. The Giants had just won their first Super Bowl in 17 years.
Which is how many years ago 2008 was. That’s the last New Jersey saw or heard from the periodical cicadas known as Brood XIV. These are Jersey’s 17-year cicadas and they’re about to come back this spring.
And man is it going to get noisy.
According to northjersey.com, when the soil temperature gets around 64 in mid-May, the first will begin to emerge. The cicadas will crawl up from the ground they’ve been burrowed inside for the last 17 years like some awakening zombies. More and more will emerge over two weeks followed by several days of shedding their nymphal skin and hardening their exoskeletons.
Then comes the noise. The male cicadas are the culprits. They say the noise grows louder over two to three weeks and the mating begins. The females lay eggs and when they hatch the nymphs dive to the ground and burrow and remain in there for 17 years.
From a human perspective, it feels a bit like ‘What on Earth is the point of this existence?’
So where in New Jersey are you most likely to be kept awake by this incessant noise? Experts have pinpointed Atlantic, Ocean, and Camden counties as those that will be hit the hardest. We’re not the only state expecting Brood XIV 17-year cicadas. Twelve other states will be kept up at night by the same entomological opera.
Just how loud can this opera be? The mating call of male cicadas has been recorded as loud as 152 decibels. That’s louder than jets at Newark Liberty International Airport. Louder than jackhammers. Louder than live rock bands. Louder than chainsaws.
But still not as loud as a Karen road raging at the Somerville Circle, and we’ve all survived her, we’ll survive this.
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Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski only.