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For many Illinois residents, the droning call of cicadas is central to summer's soundscape. But this year looks—and sounds—a bit different, courtesy of a timely collision between cicada Broods XIII and XIX. The two broods emerge every 13 and 17 years, respectively.

This summer, their schedules synched up for the first time since 1803 . Fatima Husain, a Beckman researcher and professor of speech and hearing science, explains why individuals with tinnitus may find peace among the audial onslaught and offers suggestions for how people can safely shield their ears from the impending "wall of sound." We are all aware of the sounds of summer, with the sounds of cicadas being a distinctive part of that.



But what we are talking about this summer is the 13-year and 17-year periodical cicadas , which far outnumber the annual cicadas in number and in sheer sound levels. Cicadas can be quite loud, with the loudness being like a jet engine in some cases (90–110 decibels). Imagine this wall of sound outside, surrounding you as you go to run errands or work or take a stroll.

But, the sounds are loudest near the trees harboring the insects; the sound reduces with distance from the sound source, so if you are standing 12–24 feet from the tree the sounds should be a quite manageable 80–85 decibels. There is little chance of the cicada noises causing hearing loss unless you are hearing them at say 3 feet for several hours consecutively. I remember experiencing the 2004 brood in Maryla.

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