Let's talk gardening and cicadas

[Anonymous]

This will be my 3rd rendezvous with the 17 year cicadas, but my first as a homeowner with a yard. I had wanted to plant roses and peonies - will they be affected by the cicadas?

We have young (<17 year) dogwoods, kanzan cherry trees, and river birch - should I do anything to protect them?

Any other general gardening/yard + cicada info that you can share?

[Anonymous]

I would just plant and hope for the best. I’ve never heard that they hurt shrubs and certainly not peonies. Just baby trees, is my understanding. Like very baby.

[Anonymous]

They are very tree specific. See which trees they like and if those are growing in your yard. Those are the places that will be coming out of the soil around.

[Anonymous]

I don’t recall them harming anything in the garden the last time.

[Anonymous]

Here is a good resource https://www.cicadamania.com/cicadas/will-the-cicadas-kill-my-trees-shrubs-or-flowers/

[Anonymous]

Cicadas begin life as a rice-shaped egg, which the female deposits in a groove she makes in a tree limb, using her ovipositor. The groove provides shelter and exposes the tree fluids, which the young cicadas feed on. These grooves can kill small branches. When the branches die and the leaves turn brown, it is called flagging.

Once the cicada hatches from the egg it will begin to feed on the tree fluids. At this point, it looks like a termite or small white ant. Once the young cicada is ready, it crawls from the groove and falls to the ground where it will dig until it finds roots to feed on. It will typically start with smaller grass roots and work its way up to the roots of its host tree. The cicada will stay underground from 2 to 17 years depending on the species. Cicadas are active underground, tunneling, and feeding, and not sleeping or hibernating as commonly thought.

After the long 2 to 17 years, cicadas emerge from the ground as nymphs. Nymphs climb the nearest available vertical surface (usually a plant) and begin to shed their nymph exoskeleton. Free of their old skin, their wings will inflate with fluid (haemolymph) and their adult skin will harden (sclerotize). Once their new wings and body are ready, they can begin their brief adult life.

Adult cicadas also called imagoes, spend their time in trees looking for a mate. Males sing (or otherwise vibrate the air or their surroundings), females respond, mating begins, and the cycle of life begins again.




What can you do? Probably nothing. The biggest problem is not the Cicada's emerging but rather the new Cicadas feeding on plant juice and roots. My solution is to attract a lot of birds in the backyard by putting seeds and birdbaths. I am expecting them to make a meal of the Cicadas. Also putting some blue bird nests too. Hopefully we will see some bluebirds take full time residence in our backyard.

[Anonymous]

Are they susceptible to ortho?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are they susceptible to ortho?

Psycho.

[Anonymous]

Because spraying cicadas is different than having mosquito squad spray your yard?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because spraying cicadas is different than having mosquito squad spray your yard?

They’re both terrible, but at least the mosquitoes are a pest. The cicadas don’t do anything.

[Anonymous]

PICTURES WERE WHOLLY UNNECESSARY PP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because spraying cicadas is different than having mosquito squad spray your yard?

They’re both terrible, but at least the mosquitoes are a pest. The cicadas don’t do anything.

I have a yard full of tread planted in the last three years

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because spraying cicadas is different than having mosquito squad spray your yard?

They’re both terrible, but at least the mosquitoes are a pest. The cicadas don’t do anything.

I have a yard full of tread planted in the last three years

Then maybe click the link and see if there’s anything you can do to protect your “tread”.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because spraying cicadas is different than having mosquito squad spray your yard?

They’re both terrible, but at least the mosquitoes are a pest. The cicadas don’t do anything.

I have a yard full of tread planted in the last three years

It would be better to net them, but it sounds like the whole yard was dug up recently so it might not even be an issue.

[Anonymous]

In my experience the 17-year locusts do no harm to your trees. I've been around for several rounds at this point. They come out of the ground, they sing, and they leave their exoskeletons everywhere. The tips of large trees die off, but in one of the previous rounds someone in a newspaper said the trees are adapted to this and it doesn't harm them. I've never seen a tree killed by locusts? Children are absolutely entranced by them. They're everywhere. Everywhere. But it's a short period of time, and it ends. I find myself curiously sorry to see them disappear once again.