All is quiet here until July. I went to visit my mother in Cook County and it was loaded with them. I do love the sound they make and love to watch them fly. I also think there kinda cool looking but thats me.

I live at the southeast end of Westmont, IL in a large apartment complex, and we don't have cicadas...though we can hear them less than a mile away in Downer's Grove. I'm wondering if the flocks of geese and ducks that live in the ponds on our property are eating them!
Meanwhile, I'm dog-sitting in Glen Ellyn and when I arrived last Friday, I thought I'd entered an Alien Zone...zillions of Cicadas at drill decibels flying around, dropping from the trees and coating the drive way. I grew up in the western suburbs and always welcomed the cicadas as a sign of summer...but this is ridiculous! The dog is a nervous wreck...eats them by the dozen, then upchucks them...inside of course. I've taken to loading the dog into the car and driving to walk him in next-door Wheaton which miraculously seems to have escaped what can only be called plague proportions! Maybe it's all the churches in Wheaton...they sure seem to have a guardian angel. Since I work in Wheaton I don't feel like a carpetbagger...and yes, doggie and I are careful to clean up after him. I'm torn, because on the one hand this is a fascinating quirk of nature and it's kind of interesting to be in the middle of it. I even like the sound....but not at this level and this incessently. Enough already! Get on with it Cicadas! Do your thing and please....go away!!!

We have plenty of them in Westmont and they have been very entertaining and fun to watch and they look so cute when they fly. I got to where I could pick them up without feeling afraid. I have taken plenty of pictures that turn out excellent. I get my first digital camera tomarrow and that will be extra fun. Today I seen 4 of them pumping their eggs into a small branch and I never thought i would see that. A long black needle looking thing comes from their body and sticks into the tree. And now there are alot of tiny holes in our trees and weeks from now ant like babies will come out and drop to the ground and go into the earth not to be seen again for another 17 years. I will miss the little buggers.

I live on the south side of Chicago, (Beverly)I came home late one evening and could not get into my house, the cicadas were all around the door frame,the banister,and the porch was covered with them.I went to my sisters house until someone removed them for me. I can't wait until this is over.

Yesterday I was trying to go for a walk, and I had to scream to my husband's ear so I don't think it's a nice thing to have Bilions of them in your city.Come to Lyons and hear!

The noise is so loud here in Downers Grove,Il. that I can not sit on my front porch in mid afternoon without earphones. It was not this bad 17 yrs. ago. Not by a long shot. These things can get into your car and when you least expect it they will start flying around and buzzing. Perfectly harmless otherwise. Can these things be frozen and then used for fish bait?

Still no cicada's in Wheaton. They are in many towns around us but nothing here. Is it possible we won't get anything? :(

Cicadas are out in full force here in Homewood, IL. 2 weeks ago we were thinking ‘is this it? this won’t be so bad’ now it’s nuts.
I don’t remember 17 years ago but we’ve got piles of shells in the yard next to the house and around the trees. There are TONS of
cicadas on the trees. (i tried taking new pictures for my website but the batteries are dead) They are attracted to light, so if you
or your spouse are afraid of them don’t leave the porch light on!

They're starting to move west of Ohare airport. They're only blocks away so I would imagine I'm going to get them but as of this morning, nothing.

I graduated from high school in May 1973. I was standing at the corner for my friend to pick me up because of course we had to be there early. I happened to glance down at the ground and was horrified to watch some hideous creature emerging. Then another and another. By this time I was almost catatonic from fear. And of course during the graduation ceremony the plague came out in full force. The damn things are blind and seem to always manage to hit in the face and head, and the worst is having one hanging off of your posterior, because of course you can't see them. Oh, God, I hate bugs!

We had the 17 year invasion a couple of years ago and there is nothing exciting about it! They're big,loud,UGLY bugs that can cause some damage to your trees. You should NOT eat these insects either~people have gotten sick in doing so. 17 years in the ground absorbing pesticides and chemicals used in lawn treatments CAN be harmful!

The cicadas in LaGrange are awesome - the sound is my favorite! I was kind of scared when they were first talking about them on the news, now I'm so used to them that when I went out yesterday and they were flying all around, I just used my bag to swat them out of the way. The sound is so deafening now (but I still just LOVE that sound!). They drowned out the carnival noises of rides, kids, everything, on the same block. They really are as loud as you've heard they are. I called my kids in Milwaukee and my son visiting South Carolina, and just held the phone up so they could hear how deafening they were. I want to tape record the sound. It is so relaxing to listen to. And they'll soon be gone...:(

The cicadas are plentiful in Broadview, Illinois. They are so plentiful that they are now coming down the chimney flutes into the homes of some of my neighbors. They are also hanging on to windshields for unexpected rides to work and elsewhere. They are not pretty insects they look rather frightening! And when they fly into you or your hair, they really seem frightening. I will not miss them at all!!!

We have cicadas every summer in Buffalo, NY. Personally, I love the sound they make. However, several years ago I was visiting in San Antonio, TX and the noise from the cicadas there was deafening.

I live in Valparaiso, In. The sound they make can wake the dead...they are all over my yard and trees.

i live in Oswego and I havent seen a one. I hope they make it out this way soon, I miss them.

I have seen (and heard) cicadas every summer of my whole life except for the two years we were stationed in Hawaii(the Cockroaches are 4-6 inches long there so no one worries about any other bugs). And yes we have cicadas in some parts of California also. Come check out Martinez in the late spring, but 30 miles away in Oakley there seems to be none.

I try to stomp on as many of them as I can!

What is the big deal about cicadas? I've been listening to them EVERY summer for as long as I can remember.(over 50 years)My mother always used to say it was going to be hot when the "locusts" sang. They are a sure sign summer is here! And that's why I love the sound.

Will it happen in Detroit also?

Ah, the sweet sound of bugs in love. All they need is some Barry White songs of love and they will really sing. I live on the West Side and you can hear the male cicadas from Oak Park to Westchester. They are particularly loud around the golf course near Wolf Road and Cermak.

Those of you who are wondering, there are other varieties of cicadas that come once every other year and once every five years. Wikipedia "cicada" and you will find out about the many varieties of cicadas. I'm originally from the south and am use to hearing them a little more frequent than once every 17 years.

Just imagine the sound of cicadas along with the sound of crickets at night. Music to sleep by.

I live in North Dakota now but remember the sound of the cicadas and how deafening it was when I grew up in chicago. I miss fire flies here and wondered why their not here in ND?

Cicadas are everywhere in Homewood, southern suburb
of Chicago. Can't trim the hedges because they are on
all the branches. Today the seagulls arrived and had
a field day, diving around the trees to scare the bugs
up and having lunch on the wing! The bugs were really
noisy, probably warning everyone about the seagulls.
And they are everywhere, on sides of houses, garages,
up in trees, in bushes - millions of them!

There are several different species of Cicada with different intervals that they grow for some for 7, 10, 17 and other periods. Due to this in some different areas you are likely to have cicada at different times. As for what they do during the intervening years they live off root sap. Another thing is the reason some areas may be inundated while other areas see very little can have to do with old growth trees in that area. Generally they will be more prevalent in areas that have trees that were of appropriate size to have been alive during their last occurance. So areas with older trees and more established communities will tend to have more.

None in Bolingbrook as of yet.