What is all that loud noise outside in late summer early fall in Illinois?

Question

It sounds like it may be birds, maybe locusts? Every late summer and fall you can hear it. It starts softly, then gets louder, and louder then phases out and starts all over again.

Answer 1

They are what are known as Cicadas, some people also call them "heat bugs", this is becuase they typically call during the heat of the afternoon, when predators are less active and are seeking relief from the heat. They are actually members of the order Hemiptera, the true bugs. These insects that you hear singing are the adult stages. They typically dont live long as adults, but several species can survive for more than 10 years underground as nymphs. One species common to the United States spends 17 years as a nymph, feeding on plant juices which it sucks from the roots of old growth trees. They emerge for only about 2 weeks as adults, they develop wings, and genitals, mate and then they die.

Pretty cool little critters!

here is a picture of a nymph (underground stage, immature)
http://bugguide.net/node/view/57119...

here is the adult, the vocal stage:
http://bugguide.net/node/view/63285...

Source(s):
Im an entomologist, who studied several cicada species in the past

Answer 2

Pine Borers(sp) They make a humming sound that makes you think of there is an electric subject around the telephone poles. They get into the timber around your place, relatively pine timber and make holes.

Answer 3

If it sounds something like:
FisssccchHHHHZZSWEEEEEEEuuuuufisccchhhHHHHZZSWEEEEuuuuuu... it's probably cicadas. We've got them in MO, too. They look like big, pretty flies with blue backs, white bellies, and long, long wings. They tend to be about 1 to 1.5 inches long.