“These insects come crawling up out of the ground in mass and start clinging to the sides of buildings, fences, whatever and popping out the back of the nymphal skin to become adults,” Kunkel said. “It's pretty cool to see that massive number of skins everywhere. Just really impressive to see. The first time I saw it was in the eighties and I was very much into fishing and using them for finishing bait...The first time I saw a big, massive group of insects crawling up the trunk of a tree, it was just incredible.”

As if that’s not rock-and-roll enough for you, the Brood X cicadas also use what is known as a tymbal organ to create a 100-decibel sound that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention compares to a car horn at 16 feet. Luckily, though, they won’t quite reach the 105 to 110-decibel noise of your typical rock concert. Still, many Delawareans will experience louder cicada songs than usual.

“It is higher pitched, almost a white noise that drowns out conversation,” said Owens. “Some of the Brood X species sound like a buzz saw while others make sound more akin to ‘whooo-ooh.’ ”

Whether you want to simply hear their deafening chorus or to fry them up as a crunchy protein-filled snack (yes, that’s a thing), you’ll need to hurry. Despite spending nearly two decades underground, each cicada will only live above ground for approximately four weeks.