The cicadas of Brood XIV are back for their second 21st-century appearance, making a noisy sweep across 15 states. These large insects, noted for their deafening chorus and sheer numbers—about 1.5 million per tree-covered acre—have begun emerging in Tennessee and North Carolina, with billions more expected across the Southeast through mid-June. Time takes a look at how they operate and why they're counterintuitively more of a boon than a nuisance.