Ever been sitting outside on a sticky New Jersey summer evening when a loud, non-stop sound suddenly kicks in from the trees? You look up. You scan the yard. You see nothing. That mystery sound is almost always one of two insects: the cicada or the katydid. Both are famous for being heard and almost never seen, and until you know what to listen for, telling them apart is surprisingly tricky. The good news is that once you know a few key differences, you'll be able to name the culprit without ever spotting it.
Meet The Cicada
Cicadas are the heavyweight of this pair. They typically run 1 to 2 inches long, with a thick body, wide-set eyes, and clear wings held tent-like over their back. Before they ever make a sound, cicada nymphs spend years underground, quietly feeding on root sap and waiting for their moment to finally surface. Once they emerge as adults, the males get to work producing that steady, droning buzz using special structures on their abdomen called tymbals, while the females stay quiet and simply listen. You'll hear it mainly during the day, and it really picks up in the thick heat of midsummer. In fact, the hotter and stickier the afternoon gets, the louder and more constant that chorus tends to become.
Meet The Katydid
Katydids play an entirely different game. Instead of relying on size, they lean on camouflage. They're green all over, with wings shaped like leaves, which lets them disappear into trees and shrubs almost completely, even up close. Their antennae are long and thread-thin, actually longer than their whole body, which is a handy detail if you ever manage to spot one hiding in a hedge. Rather than a steady drone, they produce a rasping "katy-did, katy-did" call by rubbing their wings together, a process called stridulation. Since they're most active at night, that sound usually starts up right around dusk rather than at noon, and it often carries on well into the evening.
Side-By-Side: How To Tell Them Apart By Sound And Sight
Still not sure which one is behind that sound in your yard? Here's a side-by-side breakdown.
| Feature | Cicada | Katydid |
|---|---|---|
| Appearance | Thick body, wide-set eyes, clear tent-like wings | Green body, wings shaped like leaves |
| How The Sound Is Made | Tymbals on the abdomen produce a buzzing drone | Wings rub together (stridulation) for a rasping call |
| When It's Heard | Daytime, especially midsummer heat | Nighttime, starting around dusk |
| Body Size | 1 to 2 inches long | Smaller body, but antennae longer than its whole length |
| Camouflage Style | Sits high in tree canopy, relies on height | Leaf-shaped wings blend into foliage |
Why You Hear Them But Almost Never See Them
There's a simple reason both insects are so hard to spot: they're built for exactly that. A katydid's leaf-shaped wings make it nearly invisible against foliage, even in daylight, and it rarely moves enough to give itself away. Cicadas, meanwhile, tend to sit high up in the tree canopy, well out of easy view, and their sound seems to come from everywhere at once, which makes pinpointing a single one almost impossible. Add in the fact that katydids only come out at night, when spotting anything green in a dark hedge is a challenge on its own, and it makes sense that most people hear these two insects all summer long without ever actually laying eyes on either one.
Here's the good news: neither of these insects is a pest problem you need to solve. They don't get into the house, they don't damage a lawn or garden in any real way, and there's no treatment plan that makes sense for either one — they're simply the sound of a New Jersey summer, and honestly, a fairly pleasant one at that. Still, plenty of other outdoor noises turn out to be worth a second look. If you're hearing an insect and also noticing chewed leaves or an ant trail near the patio, ant control in Wayne is a far more common reason for a service call than anything you've read about here, so it's worth ruling out. The same goes if a nighttime sound is coming from inside a wall instead of a tree — that's when rodent control in Clifton becomes the more relevant conversation, and a very different situation from a bug singing in the hedge. When you're genuinely unsure what's actually making the noise, our team offers a full pest inspection to help sort it out, and our outdoor pest control service keeps the yard covered against the bugs that actually bite and bother, while these two keep singing undisturbed. And if the sound is closer to the ground than up in the trees, cricket control is probably the more useful page to check next.