Apparently, Newberry, S.C. didn’t get the memo that the cicadas were coming. Or they just didn’t know exactly what that entailed.
Local residents have been calling the Newberry County Sheriff’s Office to complain that they could hear a loud siren or roar, according to an account by the Associated Press.
The sheriff’s office responded to the complaints via a post on Facebook “letting people know that the whining sound is just the male cicadas singing to attract mates after more than a decade of being dormant.”
In all fairness, there is nothing so annoying as a male who hasn’t gotten any in a while trying to pick up a female — no matter the species.
And cicadas chirping or buzzing or whatever you call that noise, can be extra annoying. Scientists who study them often have to use earmuffs to do so as their collective sound can reach jet engine levels of noise.
That said, it’s highly unlikely that the Newberry Sheriff’s Office — or any other law enforcement entity — will issue the cicadas citations for noise.