Experts say cicadas are beginning to beat their wings around the state a bit earlier than normal this year, but one researcher says it's not because of the hot summer.
Department of Natural Resources Entomologist Phil Marshall says the early spring is mostly likely the main catalyst for the early cicada arrival because the Indiana soil didn't go through such a hard winter. Still, Marshall says the sound should not be as deafening this year as in some other years.
"These are probably the annual cicadas. They‘re not the 17-year or 13-year locusts because there‘s not a brood of those expected this year," Marshall says.
Marshall says the annual brood is also known as a "Dog Day" cicada, describing the fact they typically emerge during hot summer months.