It's the Brian Laird Show on WNYC. Welcome back, everybody. I'm Bridget Bergen, filling in for

Brian today. And that buzzing you just heard was the sound of millions of desperate cicadas

looking for a mate. If you live in parts of the Midwest or the Southeast, you probably know

that sound and maybe considering an investment in some nice

noise-canceling headphones. After years underground, two massive groups of cicadas are crawling

out of the earth at once from Northern Illinois to the Carolinas, and they are loud. It's

been reported that it's so noisy in one part of South Carolina that some people

are mistaking the sound for construction and calling the police. Well, you'll hear some cicadas

every summer. These groups or broods only emerge every 13 or 17 years, and it's rare for two broods

to emerge at once. This is the first time

these two will be emerging together since 1803. So here to explain why this is happening and the

effect these bugs can have not just on our ears, but on our ecosystem, is Vox Senior Environmental

Reporter Benji Jones.

Benji, welcome to the show.

Hey, Bridger, good to be with you.

And listeners, do you have any burning questions about this dual emergence or just about cicadas in general?

Now is your time. We'd love to also hear from any listeners in the Midwest or Southeast who are

seeing the cicadas, more likely hearing them, emerge around them. Give us a call 212-433

W-N-YC. That's 212-433-9692. You can call or text at that number. So Benji, before we get into the effects of this emergence on the entire ecosystem,

let's talk about the cicadas themselves.

I said they're emerging from underground, but how did they get there in the first place?

Yeah, so cicadas are these really incredible, kind of magical and mysterious insects,

...