There’s been a lot of talk about the lack of cicadas this summer as their distinctive sound is absent in some parts of the country.
It seems everyone has a theory as to why they’ve been silenced but experts believe New Zealand's hot conditions are behind it.
It's a mating call that you either love or drives you round the bend.
"The noisy ones are the boys. The quiet ones are the girls and all the boys are going like 'me, me, pick me' and she comes up and well the rest is history really," 'Bug Man' Ruud Kleinpaste told Newshub.
Cicada season normally happens during the warmer months from December through to about March but 2022 has been different.
"I think we're in a low cicada year this year," Kleinpaste said. "We heard one yesterday, one."
Around the country, people are noticing how quiet things have been. For gardener Karen Jackson, there's been a distinct lack of cicadas at her place and she's not unhappy about that.
"As much as we love to hear the noise of a cicada, they can be quite damaging as a pest," Jackson told Newshub.
"The adults get on the softer parts of the stem, especially my plum trees."
Kleinpaste said the hot, dry conditions could be making it difficult for the insects to burrow out of rock-hard soil.
"These creatures in the soil have already crawled very close to the soil surface and they’re waiting for two things: warmth and moisture," he said. "And when everything is right they say 'right out we go'."
But Jackson believes the heavy rain in Auckland last month may have drowned out the cicada population.
"We had a huge downpour at the beginning of December," Jackson said. "I know cicadas need moist earth to come through, but if they're young and they're moulting my theory is that they were washed away."
The good news for nature nerds is that hornets and wasps are barely noticeable this summer while monarch butterflies are everywhere, so Kiwis will have to be a little bit more patient before cicada numbers go up.
"I'm not worried about them, they're quite tough creatures, they'll come back," Jackson said.
It might be late summer before that familiar summer soundtrack returns to a garden near you.
Watch the full story above.
