Tri-State Braces For Return Of Cicadas

CINCINNATI -- The cicadas' song was not at the top of the charts in 1987, but it was the minds of Tri-Staters back then.

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Cicadas To Return To Tri-State

And WLWT Eyewitness News 5's Brian Hamrick reported Wednesday that a reunion tour is on schedule sometime between May 17 and May 25.

The bug band returns for another six-week round of loud and irritating music. About 5 billion of them are expected to surface in Cincinnati, Hamrick reported. The hardest-hit area likely will be west of Interstate 71 and south of Interstate 275.

"It's just an amazing phenomenon," Cincinnati Zoo entomologist Randy Morgan said. "It's centered in central and western Cincinnati. Pretty much all of Cincinnati is going to experience a large number of cicadas."

Morgan added that the only place in the world where this takes place is east of the Mississippi River, and is concentrated largely in the Tri-State.

And rather than letting the cicadas become bothersome, the folks at the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce plan to embrace them, Hamrick reported.

"It's going to be a lot of fun," Chamber spokeswoman Melinda Canino said. "What we are doing is finding the silver lining in the cloud of cicadas that are out there."

Because mid-May is when they emerge from the ground, the invasion literally is inches away, as are the classic songs, which, to some, are no more than an a cappella annoyance.