What if you were bombarded by a plague of some of the noisiest insects on Earth?
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00:00 These insects have been growing
00:03 underground for 17 years.
00:07 They're annoying, creepy,
00:10 and above all, noisy.
00:13 These are cicadas.
00:16 And soon, millions of them
00:19 will erupt from underground,
00:21 causing chaos to everything around them.
00:25 Now, what if you suddenly
00:28 got surrounded by them?
00:30 These insects that spend
00:56 17 years underground
00:58 are known as periodical cicadas.
01:01 And they almost never come in small doses.
01:06 When they're finally born,
01:08 there's 1.5 million of them
01:11 per acre of land.
01:13 And in a single forest,
01:15 there can be hundreds of millions of them.
01:19 So what would happen if you were caught
01:21 in the middle of all these cicadas?
01:24 The first thing you'd notice
01:26 with millions of cicadas around you
01:28 would be their incredibly loud mating call.
01:32 A single cicada can be as loud as a lawnmower.
01:36 Now, imagine how loud millions of them would be.
01:39 It's common for people who live in areas
01:46 with lots of cicadas
01:47 to wear some sort of hearing protection.
01:51 Even if you're far away from them,
01:52 you would still notice their noise.
01:57 So if millions of them suddenly bombarded you,
02:00 it would be like being in the middle of a rock concert.
02:05 If you're in this cloud of insects for long enough,
02:08 they'd likely damage your hearing,
02:11 not to mention that you'd be incredibly annoyed.
02:15 "Oh, worst concert ever."
02:18 And speaking of which,
02:20 a cicada's body is very similar to a guitar.
02:24 Since their abdomens are hollow, like a guitar,
02:28 the sound gets amplified
02:29 and can spread further and be even louder.
02:33 Now that your hearing is damaged,
02:35 you'd likely be suffering from the pain,
02:38 unable to move.
02:41 As you're lying there,
02:42 the cicadas would continue to fly around you.
02:45 Some of them may pierce into your skin
02:48 and suck on your blood,
02:49 but this isn't intentional.
02:52 The cicadas are just mistaking you for a tree,
02:54 since their primary food source comes from trees.
02:59 Drinking your blood would kill the cicadas,
03:01 so you shouldn't expect too many bites from them.
03:05 See, the thing is,
03:06 cicadas are really, really dumb.
03:10 I mean, can you blame them?
03:12 They've been growing underground for 17 years.
03:15 When they emerge,
03:16 they have virtually zero brain power,
03:19 and very few motor skills.
03:23 This would cause millions of them
03:24 to stumble and bump into you.
03:27 You'd probably squish thousands of them
03:29 by accident just by walking.
03:32 And because these insects are so clumsy,
03:35 it makes them easy pickings
03:36 for lots of different animals.
03:38 So not only would you be swarmed by cicadas,
03:42 but you could expect other critters,
03:44 like chipmunks, raccoons,
03:46 and birds to be near you as well.
03:49 They'd all be feasting off the cicadas for weeks,
03:52 until there were practically none left.
03:55 And as that's happening,
03:57 you should be able to make your escape.
04:00 Granted, you'd have some injuries,
04:01 but this is a scenario where it's possible
04:04 you'd make it out alive.
04:08 After all, these cicadas aren't trying to hurt you.
04:10 They're just dumb and really annoying.
04:14 They're mainly a food source for other animals.
04:17 And every summer,
04:19 those creatures can feast in the forest.
04:23 So although they might not be our favorite insect,
04:26 we should probably keep periodical cicadas alive.
04:31 But what else could we safely make extinct?
04:35 Maybe mosquitoes?
04:38 Well, that sounds like a story
04:41 for another WHAT IF.