Are you sure you all aren’t talking about katydids for these August “end of school” bugs? They definitely start singing this time of year, but while loud, it’s not the same sound that a cicada makes. (EdwardLost: I grew up calling them “locusts” too.)
When the 17-year variety emerges, the sound is deafening.
Huh. I always thought those sounds came from frogs.
Boy, that sound really takes me back to my childhood in Houston. I’ll always equate that with summer- hot, humid, and filled with the sound of cicadas. After a while, you don’t even notice them, even though they can get really freakin’ loud.
I used to have a cicada keychain (like the one mentioned here on cicadamania.com). It made a perfect whiny, extremely annoying sound that bugged (ha) people to no end.
Hm. That should be “end of summer.” :rolleyes:
It’s very easy to tell them apart. If they sing during the day, they’re cicadas. If they sing after dark, they’re katydids.
(I call katydids “gee-gees.” That’s what it sounds to me like they’re saying. How anyone ever got “Katy did! Katy didn’t” out of the racket they make is beyond me.)
Ha, Frecks, I’ve often thought the same thing. I think I’ll adopt “Gee-gee.” I always think they sound something along the lines of Ziz-Ziz.
Here’s a page on the annual cicada (including groovy cicada pinup photos). They’re the ones that sing during late summer days. What a great genus name - Magicicada.
It’s fun to pick up a live cicada - the vibration from the folded wings is therapeutic. 
The annual types don’t seem to cause much plant damage, but when the multiyear cycle ones come out en masse they cause some dieback of young tree branches due to the way they lay their eggs.