Charlotte, NC - It sounds like something from a syfy movie and kinda looks like one to... The hum of thousands of cicadas fills the air in Becky Johnson's South Charlotte backyard.

The Cicada Watch volunteer says, “In the house with the windows closed and everything you can still hear the cicadas."

Johnson spotted her first cicada two weeks ago and signed up for Mecklenburg County's Cicada Watch soon after... It's a volunteer team of hundreds mapping the emergence of Cicada Brood 19.

Mecklenburg County Natural Resources Coordinator Lenny Lampel says, “It would have been great to know where they were 13 years ago."

Lampel went with Fox Charlotte for a stroll on the McAlpine Greenway behind Johnson's house.

He says the cicada info volunteers collect tells a valuable story, “You can almost look at these guys like a biological indicator, where they're telling you something about the health of an environment."

The larvae live underground for 13 years growing and getting stronger until an internal clock tells them to come out.

Here's a fun fact for you... a lot of fellas tend to think women are the loud mouths of the species. But the cicada noise is all the boys.

Lampel says the Cicada Watch citizen science project is unique to the region... part of a larger cicada mapping project across 14 states, “Thirteen years from now or 26 years from now that data's there to compare that too."

Lampel says the data will give insight on pesticides, environmental & land development changes and so much more.

The “song bugs” stick around through the end of may, then the next generation crawls back in the ground until 2024.

Becky Johnson says, “Just imagine what your life's gonna be like in 13 years..."

You can track Cicada Watch via the project's website or Facebook page.