By Kristina Goetz
The Cincinnati Enquirer

CLIFTON - A thousand graduates and their families and friends at Cincinnati State Technical and Community College's spring commencement is one thing.

Five billion cicadas is quite another.

This cicada was outside the First Star Bank in Clifton. (Steven M. Herppich photo)

College officials announced Monday that the ceremony scheduled for June 19 will change locations because of the upcoming onslaught of the 17-year cicadas.

The spring commencement ceremony, which is usually held outdoors under a tent at the school's Clifton campus, will instead take place at 10 a.m. in the ballroom of the Albert B. Sabin Cincinnati Convention Center downtown.

"I'm sure a lot of folks now in Cincinnati weren't here 17 years ago, the last time these little buggers made an appearance," saidBruce Stoecklin, a school spokesman. "Those who were here know how noisy they are and how unpleasant they can be to walk around or on. Crunch, crunch.

"The commencement committee ... decided we had to move the event inside so everyone could concentrate on what was happening, not to mention hearing the speakers."

The cicadas will emerge from underground between May 17 and 25, depending on how warm and how wet the weather. They'll be a fixture of Cincinnati life for the following six weeks.

They're harmless to humans - they don't bite or sting - but their incessant, high-pitched hum is loud and can be annoying. Areas with a lot of trees will see the most activity. South of Interstate 275 and west of Interstate 71 will be hardest hit.

Once they emerge from their 17-year sleep, they'll fly around (they fly low) and eventually mate and die. But before they die, each female will lay up to 400 eggs that will sink into the earth and re-emerge in 2021 as full-grown cicadas.

They were last seen here in 1987.

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Enquirer reporter Jim Knippenberg contributed. E-mail kgoetz@enquirer.com