A Brood XIV cicada is seen perched upon the trunk of an apple tree in Jersey Shore. ARIANNA McKEE/THE EXPRESS

LOCK HAVEN — There are a lot of classic summer sounds in this part of the world, ranging from Piper planes overhead to motorboats in the river to live music downtown. Few, however, are as iconic to many people as the merry, raspy buzz of cicadasong that fills the trees and mountainsides — and, sometimes, stray light poles and roofs.

Of course, an equal number of people regard the cicada and its endless tone with a hint of dislike or even outright hatred.

Either way — love them or hate them — it is about time for Brood 14 to ascend whatever tall objects they can find and sing, sing, sing.

Cicadas, or Magicada, if you prefer, are a type of insect that is renowned for its periodical cycles, at least in the Eastern United States, where there is a layered system of 13-year and 17-year cicada broods. The rest of the world does not have these broods, and only has annual cicadas (Neotibicen).

There are fifteen total broods — three on 13-year timers and 12 on 17-year timers. This year’s cicadas are Brood 14, or XIV in Roman numerals.

This means that the last time these particular cicada’s ancestors sung in Clinton County’s trees, “Rent” ended its run on Broadway, Bill Gates stepped down as the Chairman of Microsoft, “The Dark Knight” released, Lady Gaga released her debut album and the Beijing Summer Olympics were held — just as a few quick hits.

One of the reasons cicadas are so deafening is that they operate as a swarm. They emerge in incredibly dense clusters to ensure that some of them will survive to maturity, breed, and continue their brood in the face of massive predation — lots of animals like to eat cicadas. For the cicada, reproduction becomes a numbers game…many of them will die, and that is expected.

It is important to note that cicadas are not harmful to humans — other than their song driving some people crazy. Physically, though, while they can look creepy, large and intimidating, they will not bite or sting.

One of the most interesting trivia tidbits about the periodical cicada is the way with which our ecosystem reacts to the brood’s clock. Articles in magazines such as Science and National Geographic have noted that trees will produce less foliage the year before a major emergence, because the nymphs — baby cicadas, basically — will feed on tree roots to prepare themselves for their metamorphosis into their short-lived adult form. Likewise, turkeys tend to have a bumper year when there is a brood emergence, because they will feast on the adult cicadas — sort of their own Thanksgiving.

If you still aren’t convinced, fear not: Pennsylvania only gets a few of the 15 broods. Brood II, next to emerge in 2030; Brood V, next in 2033; Brood VIII, next in 2036; and Brood X, next in 2038 are Pennsylvania’s only other periodical cicada broods — and not all of those reach into Clinton County.

Curiously, though, some members of a cicada brood can be found outside of their years — but mostly by four-year intervals. Scientists theorize that this is signs of some of the 17-year broods shifting to a 13-year cycle.

And, of course, that doesn’t include the annual cicadas, which are there to alternatively comfort and annoy us year-in and year-out.

If you’ve found this interesting and want to dig into the subject a bit more, some helpful resources include the University of Connecticut’s Brood XIV page (cicadas.uconn.edu/broods/brood_14/), which has a wide variety of information as well in-depth maps tracking the emergence; and Cicadamania, (www.cicadamania.com/cicadas/), a blog with basically anything about cicadas you could want to know; as well as stalwarts such as science journals, National Geographic and other magazines.