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Cicadas are so noisy in South Carolina that residents are calling the police

Emerging cicadas are so loud in one South Carolina county that residents are calling the sheriff’s office asking why they can hear sirens or a loud roar.

The Newberry County Sheriff’s Office sent out a message on Facebook on Tuesday letting people know that the whining sound is just the male cicadas singing to attract mates after more than a decade of being dormant. The nosiest cicadas were moving around the county of about 38,000 people, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) northwest of Columbia, prompting calls from different locations as Tuesday wore on, Foster said. Their collective songs can be as loud as jet engines and scientists who study them often wear earmuffs to protect their hearing.

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