You may have heard that the 17 year cicadas (Brood X) are out this summer. They spend 17 years underground, sucking on the roots of trees, which might explain why they’re crap at flying. They’re slow and awkward, and run into things all the time. They’re easy prey for any above-ground critter that wants to catch one. The only way they survive is there are so many of them — literally trillions — that they don’t all get eaten.
The males make a very loud sound to attract a female. They only live above-ground about a month.
Some people are annoyed by them, and some are genuinely freaked out. Others want to find a way to eat them — since eating bugs is some new liberal cause. (See Pathetic Excuse for an Environmentalist Hasn’t Even Eaten a Cicada Yet from the paper of record.)
I find them amusing. They don’t hurt anybody, and the sound doesn’t bother me (especially since they’re quiet at night). They do run into you from time to time, or land on you. And sometimes they bounce off your windshield (they usually don’t squashed by that for some reason), but mostly they’re just kinda funny.