Two broods of cicadas are emerging this summer from their underground resting places for the first time since 1803—when Thomas Jefferson was president—unleashing their distinctive high-pitched cries across more than 17 American states.
For people with entomophobia—the fear of insects—this is the ultimate creepy-crawly nightmare.
For Orkin, it’s a reason to put on a show.
The brand, better known as a bug annihilator, is uncharacteristically throwing its arms around nearly 1 trillion arthropods, “turning this shrieking invasion into a musical masterpiece,” per Orkin.
To that end, the legacy pest control company and its agency of record, DDB Chicago, created “The Cicada Symphony Orkinstra,” an original seven-act symphony from Emmy Award-nominated composer Bryan Rheude. The piece of music not only takes its inspiration from the invertebrates, but also samples their unique sounds.
Pop culture invasion
There will be a live performance of the symphony with a 10-piece orchestra in Springfield, Ill., Saturday, although tickets were snapped up quickly when they became available to the public.
For those not on-site, there will be a livestream of the 45-minute concert on Orkin’s TikTok channel, with a full-length album drop on Spotify to follow.
Springfield was chosen, by the way, because it’s the epicenter of the cicada swarm that’s extending from Oklahoma to Wisconsin to North Carolina and other Southeast and Midwest U.S. locales.
“Orkin uses its knowledge to make bugs less disruptive, and this summer, there is nothing more disruptive than a once-in-a-lifetime event featuring 1 trillion shrieking cicadas,” Colin Selikow, chief creative officer at DDB Chicago, said in a statement.
