Las Vegas is alive with the sound of … cicadas

John Cusack held a boombox above his head. Anthony Weiner sent cellphone pictures. Cicadas buzz.

That incessant, piercing hum coming from the trees is the sound of male Apache cicadas in search of mates. It’s the unofficial soundtrack of summer in Las Vegas, and it’s a love serenade.

Longtime State Entomologist Jeff Knight said Nevada is home to close to 20 different species of cicada, but the ones in Las Vegas are Apaches.

“If you’re really good — and I’m not — you can tell the species apart by the sound,” he said.

Apache cicadas live underground suckling from roots for two years before emerging as nymphs as the weather heats up. Once on the surface, they promptly shed their exoskeletons and venture off in search of adult entanglements.

Knight said the husks of nymphs are made from a durable, semitransparent material called chitin that can linger on walls and the trunks of trees for months or years.

By some estimates, the buzz of a single cicada can carry up to a quarter of a mile. The insects make the sound using membranes in their abdomens called tymbals to produce rapid-fire clicks.

They’re lucky all the singing works, because these guys aren’t much to look at. About two inches long, the Apache cicada sports bulging, wide-set eyes, a stocky frame and transparent wings with black veins.

Knight said the insect is basically harmless and not considered a pest, though the females can damage twigs and small branches, especially on newly planted trees by cutting tiny holes in the wood to deposit their eggs.

Summers also draw another insect: a specialized wasp called a cicada killer that emerges about the same time to hunt the humming insects. The yellow and maroon wasp will paralyze a cicada with its sting and carry it back to its home to serve as a still-living host for its eggs. When the eggs hatch, the offspring will feed on their unfortunate prisoner.

Knight said humans have nothing to fear from cicadas, aside from the possible psychological toll.

The buzzing can be especially annoying here, he said, “because in Las Vegas there’s a lot of people who like to sleep during the day.”

And if you run into them out in the desert, the noise they make when they take flight sounds a lot like a rattlesnake.

The insect symphony should literally die down within the next few weeks. Once the males mate and the females lay their eggs, it’s lights out for adult cicadas.

Contact reporter Henry Brean at hbrean@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350.