Cicada: I exist to be born, eat, sleep, play loud music, have sex, make kids, and die. Me: Ah we are not that different you and I.

I'm in south east Alabama, I go outside and it sounds like a anime establishing shot. 😃🇺🇸

Cicada season is the most relaxing time of year for me, they produce a constant white noise that blots out my tinnitus and lets me actually get some sleep.

Hearing locusts singing in the trees takes me back 40 years to my childhood and the good ol' hot summer days

A cicada asked me the opposite question "why do humans spend their entire lives above ground, but only when they die go under ground?" I said "because we don't want them stinking up the place." The cicada said "Same for us! But we like to party before we die."

I live in New York, which has annual cicadas but no periodicals. I finally experienced Brood 10 this year when visiting my daughter, who recently moved to Maryland. Unbelievable! I finally realized what the call of the giant ants in the classic movie "Them!" really is. My daughter had just gotten a puppy as a gift for her mother, and the puppy gorged herself on cicadas in the yard. Now she expects every insect she sees to taste like cicadas, and she's repeatedly disappointed. 😂

My dad was not given a middle name at birth, and so when I was a kid he asked me to give him a middle name and I picked cicada.... He's an animal loving Buddhist and a very eccentric character so it truly suits him perfectly.... 🖤🖤Fraser Cicada George🖤🖤 I live in the Midwest while he and my mum moved back to New Zealand, our homeland after I grew up....so recounting this story truly brings joy to my heart.

17 years ago was even crazier. It was when the 17, 13, and yearly cicadas all lined up. They were absolutely everywhere. Like covered literally everything.

Biden: The plane isn't going Cicada: I can make it sound like it's going if that helps

Summer just isn't the same here in Arizona without hearing the constant screams of horny bugs.

Cicadas were absolutely INSANE in NOVA this year. Earlier this Summer, you couldn't walk out your door without them landing on you. They were leaving their exo skeletons absolutely everywhere, swarming trees, bushes, cars..and insanely loud. I'm originally from NorCal, so being around the massive swarms this year, so crazy!

They're plotting something.

Hunting for cicada shells as a kid and the fact they inspired my favorite Ghost type in Pokemon made them one of my favorite insects.

I'm in north Texas. We get cicadas every year. They're the sound of summer... it's like the trees are screaming.

I live in Virginia and I have a roommate who moved here from California. One day in the summer we were sitting outside and he kept asking "what is that noise" and I couldn't figure out what he was talking about. Turned out he was asking about the cicada noise as he had never heard that in California and I was so clueless because I had tuned it out from hearing it all my life.

cicadas: "why do humans stay overground for so long?"

So if the cicada air force has a motto, it's "they can't kill us all!"

....now I have an idea for a horror movie about the emergence of 1,000,000-year cicadas

I love cicadas. Their song is the sound of late summer for me, and they’re docile, handleable, and harmless.

We are currently in the beginning of two brood emergences in central Illinois. They are absolutely everywhere. On our trees, all over our yard, on our basketball hoop, on our parked cars, on our wooden swing set, in the garage, on our mailbox, on the house, and occasionally on my wife who proceeds to get terrified.

Yeah I was a kid the last time this happened so I didn’t remember how crazy it was. And this year I went on a two week vacation when they started emerging. When we were crossing the river back into MD, i said it sounded like someone nearby was having car trouble. Seconds later these huge bugs started hitting my windshield, and I made the same face as Ron Weasley when he hit the whomping willow with his car. Terrified. 😂

It's amazing how localized they are. Where I live they clogged our lives for over a month, but 20 minutes south, they barely got any.

Human males also attract females with an organ on their abdomen. It"s called "a wallet"

I will never forget my first exposure to the 17-year cicadas. This was in the early 70s, when I was maybe 11 or 12 years old. The weekend they emerged that year I was cutting my grandma's acre and a third lawn--a job I had only recently been allowed to do--and when these bizarre clouds of the beasties suddenly filled the air and my already long, little hippie hair, I was determined not to be daunted by them, stoically charging forward, occasionally spitting out the chunks of wings and legs that kept finding their way into my mouth. My dear old grandmama had tears rolling down her face, laughing so hard at my heroism...which made me laugh at my posturing. One of my earliest lessons in being able to laugh at myself.

Cicada's characteristic sound is my 3rd favorite sound in my world, but we only have annual cicadas in Greece. I'm guessing that if we were experiencing periodical cicadas in the billions I wouldn't have the same opinion lol

Yesterday, my boyfriend sent me a video titled "why is your mouth making that noise?" Turns out, a dog had a cicada in it's mouth. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time

These things can be absolutely defening in their song....glad you covered this one whistle boi,it's a story that is particularly relevant to me, considering that I live in an area where these things obviously flourish

I remember hearing these dude nearly every summer when I was a kid. I remember finding their shells all over the place. I grew up in a small town called Snyder, we lived in a valley area where the tornados never really bothered us. Their sound would be especially present when the sky turned green (meaning a storm was brewing)

In early may of 2021, a red eyed army emerged trillions strong crawled out from their underground lairs. DANNY, GET BACK IN THAT DAMNED BASEMENT.

Listening to the cicadas is one of my favorite parts of Summer in the South.

These guys are the punctuation marks of my life, LOL. I've enjoyed them at age 11, 28 and this year 45. 🥰 I hope to see them again.

I live in Southeast Texas and I couldn't imagine a summer without them. When I was a kid they used to annoy me, but now I love them. I find the songs a relaxing & somewhat comforting.

6:35 That moment when he says “predator sedation” instead of “predator satiation”. 😂😂😂

Imagine the fear the first person felt when hearing a cicada Brood for the first time

I love the sound of cicadas. I left my windows open to listen to them this summer. Neat bug.

I live in one of those places where the calls get deafening when the 17 year cicadas come out. It's loud even without them, but when they join in It's really incredible how loud they are.

Why do cicadas live underground for so long? They can't afford the rent. I'll show myself out.

I find the sound of cicadas to be extraordinarily comforting.

Wow, that might be the most thorough- yet concise- summation of cicadas I've ever seen. Like, how many writers does this channel have? 'Cause there's no way quality content like this can be churned out so quickly by only one or two.

I legit don't know what I'd do without the song of cicadas ion the summer. It's one of the most beautiful things about the south.

Having lived in Arkansas for most of my life, I look forward to them coming through. Fascinating creatures with the best bug sound next to crickets

I live in Japan. When summer rolls around, they're just everywhere (just like in anime shows). My eldest dog loves catching and eating them. They're flying shrimp, for her.

What you're explainin is truly an amazin, surreal experience. I live in Southwest Pennsylvania. I was born and raised here, in the heart of Appalachia. In the woods. I have experienced this three times in my life so far. I'm 40. It's so cool to hear someone from across the pond talkin about it. My hat's off to you sir.

I actually like the sound of Cicadas. It’s one of the iconic sounds of summer to me. But boy oh boy the periodic broods can get insanely loud, had a periodic brood arise in Arkansas a few years back and it was crazy to me how loud they got

Ok, I grew up in Fla and having hundreds of Cicadas in the trees is as loud as a jet engine. They actually have been measured at 120 decibels as well. They are LOUD.

At the tender age of 64 it looks like it's my last head splitting meeting with these way cool insects. When they first take flight it looks like the "Battle of Britain" on my property.

I think that their sound is soothing and reminds me of my childhood. Comes in waves and is a satisfying white noise.

Best channel for stoney nights after hard work. Simon's voice is enjoyable but doesn't drone you to sleep

Note. Do not plant nursery trees on years with 13-17 year cicadas. They drained the sap/ killed 6/32 trees I planted.

POV: you just watched a 12 min video about bugs who live in their parents basement and don’t even go outside 99% of their lives

Being as we are technically still at the tail end of the ice age (glaciers still covering the poles and enough sub polar regions to meet the definition) and the fact that they emerge annually in droves, I think there is much more we don’t know about cicadas than what we do know.

I was fortunate enough to get to observe two broods in back to back years. My family lives in SW Virginia and I was able to experience Brood IX while visiting for Mother's Day 2020. Then, Brood X hit Northern Virginia, where I live and it was incredible. They were all over my apartment's windows and were extremely loud and flying everywhere while I was did outdoor activities like running, hiking, and kayaking. They're honestly incredible

Me: Trying to listen to Simon Brain: Go, Cicada, go, you can make it out of the ground!

Oh yes! This is one of those subjects I've always meant to look up but always forget. Thank you Simon!

Fantastic work, thank you

It's an amazing sight. Ive lived in Virginia my whole life and one day when I was 17 yrs old I woke up and these things were everywhere and were screaming all over....it was totally bazaar,I'm now 36 yrs old and have seen this a time or two since then. Absolutely incredible though

I grew up in Central Texas. When I moved to Japan the main thing I missed were the screaming trees. I LOVE the sound of cicadas. It just isn't summer without screaming trees.

I love when you guys slip in juicy tidbits on other related subjects, like the bamboo similarity.

I grew up in Joliet Illinois. We had so many of these insects, singing the song of summer, is how I remembered it. I live in central Minnesota now but I have never heard them at the volume I remember as a boy. I love their song.

Your vids are great man

We used to get cicadas every year in Sydney, Australia, I guess they had staggered life cycles. I hardly ever hear them now. One of the strangest sensations is to hear thousands of them all at once the sound is really loud and pulsates like some sort of sci-fi, electronic sound effect.

Best childhood memories: putting cicada shells on the back of my sister.

Been waiting to know this!

Thanks for your sharing

Congratulations! Your Nincada evolved into Ninjask!!!

Simon Whistler…world’s tallest gnome. That beard is impressive!

I love their sounds. I find that it induces a meditative state in me. I also feel like I'm immersed in nature.

Always loved the cry of the cicada, so nostalgic for the good old days of summer

The sound of these 17 year things is the most calming sound I have ever heard.

Nature is 'weird - but also highly effective at finding solutions.

I appreciate your content.

I remember Brood X in west-central AL in 1987. If you've ever encountered the saying "it was so loud I could not hear myself think" -- that year, that brood, in that bit of the US... that would have been a perfect example. The constant daytime din of the wee beasts sounding off was so very that it was almost capable of obliterating thought itself.

I work outside in a plant/flower nursery in Maryland. By mid-July they were all dead. I had to clean up so many dead bodies. Every now and then I come across a body I had missed under a table.

Cicadas remain underground even longer than some 60s-early 70s radicals. Cicadas are interesting.

Good job, Simon, on this video; I love cicadas. Now I'm interested in the bamboo 130 yr cycle.

I love the cicadas. Their music always reminds me of my childhood where I spent a large percentage of being outside with my old friends.

9:37 I remember that vividly. It was horrible. Every night it was so loud you almost had to yell at someone just to carry on a conversation outside. But, seeing a dog carrying a buzzing cicada around in their mouth is hilarious and I got to witness that quite a few times that summer

That's amazing. I live in Michigan and have experienced Cicadas my whole life. However... I never knew why the 13 and 17 year species came out at those points. Very Very cool to understand this now. Thanks! Nature is amazing.

When I was a kid we lived in the country where the swarm was unbearably dense. We figured out that tennis rackets were incredibly good at culling them when airborne, so we would shake trees and shred all the ones that flew out. Worked like a charm. For hard mode, use baseball bats instead of tennis rackets.

Here in Southwest Florida My trees and yard are filled with cicadas at the moment. Kind of crazy how as loud as the cicadas are when they synchronize you kind of get used to it. It becomes background noise unless you start thinking about it and then it becomes annoyingly loud again.

Your thumbnails are honestly so funny LOL

I spent 26 years underground buddy, it was the wage packet that kept me there. 😂

I live in MD and it was interesting this year. I live in an older development with a decent sized park that has quite a few older trees. In my block most of the trees that were around 17 years ago had died or been cut down so the noise wasn't all that loud. I am 4 blocks from the park and as you walked towards the park it got louder and louder. The noise is annoying but they go silent at dusk and don't restart until the sun is well up so they don't interrupt your sleep. I'm looking forward to seeing them in 2038!

I live in the center of the biggest 17 year brood territory. It was INSANELY loud for 6 weeks. There were SOOOOOOOOO many of them.

I miss the summer sound of cicadas, except when they are out partying all night & keep me awake 😆

What most of our generation doesn't know is there are cicadas with a 150 year cycle. They molt and molt until they are the size of cars. We are almost at that stage.

I Love the sound of the cicadas song. It is comforting to me. Brings back memories from when I was a kid. ☺

I live in the mid atlantic of the US, and when we had the really bad season of cicadas a couple months ago, I could barely step out of my house because all the trees in my neighborhood were literally covered with cicadas. It was loud enough to literally set my ears ringing.

Wait a second, how the heck does all the global bamboo know when to flower? You buried a little nugget of added weirdness in a very weird video!

Clocked the periodical cicadas at almost 96 dB in the neighborhood that I lived in (where there weren't that many trees to start). In the actual woods the sound probably could've ruptured eardrums.

We have annual cicadas here in Colorado and the noise they make can be deafening. Not to mention annoying. Despite their mating calls being annoying to most people they’re quite amazing creatures.

Hey, Simon! Love the videos. I have a question that might fit this channel: What is a "four-alarm fire" (six alarm fire, etc), what is the history of classifying fires by alarms come from, and how prevalent is that scale used around the US (and elsewhere)?

Very cool piece 👍 Simon should start a new channel called Critter Blaze! Learn all about the animal kingdom

Had an annual cicada crash into a window last week and land on its back. Went outside to right it, and it started singing in my hands. I could literally feel the bones of my middle ear vibrate inside my skull that thing was so loud.

Claremont CA, just spent the last few months listening to them. No idea how long they spend underground out here in California. Very interesting video.

Another entertaining and informative episode. This is edutainment at its best. Well done, Simon and crew. There's one thing that even those of us who grew up with cicadas, both the annual variety as well as the long-cycle ones, are still mostly ignorant of. It has to do with the unfortunate fact that cicadas absolutely scare the shit out of some people. Not particularly surprising when you consider how huge the emerged adults are. For those of you who've never seen one in the flesh, they're often larger than hummingbirds and rival some other small species of birds in size. They're certainly the hugest insects most people will ever see. That and the reckless abandon that can characterize their flight, as well as the loud clattering sound a flying cicada makes, will occasionally cause some people to hit the dirt to avoid them. Those who are scared of them need to know one thing: Adult cicadas have no mouthparts. They do not have jaws to bite with. As true bugs (hemipterans) they would normally have piercing and sucking mouthparts. The immature cicadas do have them, though the only thing they bite are the roots of plants. The adults have no functional mouthparts because the adults do not feed. On anything. One reason they're so huge is because that body mass is all they have to survive off of for the very short duration of their adult lives. There are other insects that do not feed as adults, and thus have no need for mouthparts. But cicadas are by far the largest I'm aware of. So regardless of their gigantic size, no matter that loud clattering sound they make when flying, regardless of the wicked red eyes some of them have, cicadas are about as harmless as an insect can be. They have nothing to bite you with, nothing to sting you with. You could lie in a pile of them for an hour and come out without a single scratch or puncture. They can be safely handled so when one gets in your house and scares the living daylights out of you at 4 AM by beating against a window, they can safely be caught by hand and tossed outside. Hell, the cicada would probably be grateful to you for doing so. The only thing you have to fear from them is if you ride motorcycles. I always wore a full-face helmet when I rode (which I have not done in years) but a friend of mine rode with a helmet that only covered his cranium. He caught a cicada in between the eyes at about 50 Mph and it took him right off the motorcycle. Split him open from his forehead to the bridge of his nose. He spent a couple of weeks in the hospital, and his motorcycle was transformed into a $7000 pile of scrap. The irony is that for as clumsy as cicadas appear to be, they're actually skilled flyers and will usually avoid large moving objects like cars. Even after growing up in the deep south I don't recall a single incident of ever hitting one with my windshield or front grill. But I guess a smaller fast-moving vehicle can be harder for them to avoid. Most of the riders I know wear full-face helmets with face shields, and chest armor when they ride during cicada season. Another friend had one hit his chest at high speed and afterwards his chest looked like he'd been hit by a fast-moving pitch at a pro baseball game. But other than that they're harmless, and in fact are pretty delightful once you get to know them. All the adults care about, all they're interested in, is in mating at least once in their short adult lives. That's their only goal, only purpose. Surely you can sympathize with that. Or were you not 17 years old yourself once? You can handle them with impunity to toss them outside so be nice and give them a break. Besides, squashing them makes such a gigantic mess, you will end up wishing you'd just tossed it out the door instead of hitting it with a shoe.

Their voices are so beautiful!

I remember in 1998 when the 17 and 13 year broods coincided for the 1st time in 200 years, my neighborhood was clearing our driveway's off with snow shovels.

Here in Northwest MO it's been insane. Crickets and Cicadas mate in tandem and it's an orchestra of humming and chirping. Until a firework goes off. Then it's dead silent for about five minutes and it starts up again

Great thumbnail! My curiosity was instantly peaked.