It will be another few weeks before this year’s cicadas start to disappear. Mike Chippendale, a University of Missouri entomologist (that’s a bug expert) credits the heavy summer rains with a particularly heavy population of the critters. Two years ago, three different varieties of cicadas were born at once: The 13-year, 17-year, and 1-year cicadas all visited Missouri. That happens only once every 200 years or so. Chippendale says the buzzing we hear is the cicada trying to attract a mate. After they mate, they lay their eggs in the ground and die. He says they should start to quiet down by early October.
