A Chinese student named Yang temporarily lost his hearing after spending four hours amidst the incessant chirping of cicadas while camping in the mountains, the South China Morning Post reports.
The 18-year-old student from Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, ventured into the woods in early July. Around midday, he found himself surrounded by the intense chirping of the insects. Without any hearing protection, the young man spent four hours in this noisy environment. By evening, he experienced a sensation of fullness and swelling in his ears and lost the ability to hear high-frequency sounds, such as birdsong or phone alerts.
Doctors diagnosed the student with temporary hearing impairment caused by noise exposure. His hearing returned after 14 days of treatment and rest, the publication notes. While a single cicada produces a sound level of around 70 decibels—which is safe—a chorus of the insects can exceed 85 decibels, the threshold at which irreversible hearing loss begins.
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