I don’t suppose they would effect fig trees would they? I assume the latex would keep them away.
They did not touch my fig but it’s the only thing they didn’t touch. I wouldn’t count on it.
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Do they only go after a certain diameter of branch?
They cut up the small branches.
What about a 1" caliper trunk?
They made cuts in 1" wood here but no 3" wood. The thinner the wood the more cut up it will be. They hit all the 1/2" and below wood, a few 2" and above but none of the stuff greater than 3".
Clark I don’t remember if you paint trees or not but do you think Cicadas would cut up trees that have been painted with white latex?
I paint trunks with white latex. I’m not sure how that would work . I can tell you the peaches were gorgeous I had before they came along and they destroyed them. Cut those trees back to the main trunks this year and they might die.
They prefer the undersides of pencil through fat pencil size. When they come the next time I will be spraying Surround WP on the undersides of all branches. It is labeled for cicadas. Since its the underside of the limbs it should last awhile out of the rain. My guess based on past experience with Surround on other bugs is it will reduce the damage by 2/3 to 3/4ths. In other words, you will still get a lot of damage but you won’t be pruning young trees nearly back to the trunk.
Note also that the density varies a lot from location to location. My yard is really bad for them. They were particularly bad on my big maples. But, I had three maples last time and meanwhile they all died, so maybe I will not be so bad this time.
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I noticed a load of cicadas at my dad’s house today. They were covering his apple tree. It’s too large to protect.
At my home I’ve only found a few casings. My home was build in 1999 so that was the last time the cicadas were out. I’m wondering if the construction, tree clearing, and earth moving could have prevented them from setting up shop. Not that it matters, they will swarm from all over.
I started to net a few trees tonight and I am afraid I’m going to destroy some of my grafts if the netting sits on them or gets tangled on them. But I guess it’s a risk worth taking. I’m going to try to have them covered by tuesday.
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They are here in S.E. Ohio. All the ground torn up with holes everywhere. I cruise my trees pulling off shells.
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Speedster,
Hopefully you get netting on in time they made a mess of things here last year.
Bobc,
Thankfully you are not seeing signigant damage yet.
So the cicadas are in full swing in my town but in my development they are rarely seen. Some parts of town you can hear their racket with the windows rolled up in your car.
Do cicadas typically relocate once they emerge. I covered my trees but since their aren’t any cicadas I wonder if I can uncover them or if they might swarm from other parts of the city to my locale
On my property the cicada moved a lot from where they came from. These fields where my new orchard is located were being deep plowed 17 years ago so I’m sure they came from elsewhere (my woods). My friend and I were doing the deep plowing and growing red clover, oats, soybeans, corn, wheat , and sorghum in rotation.
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Looks bad Bob are they cutting up your trees yet?
Not yet, they’re tuning up.
Bobc,
Hope your orchard is making out ok. They caught me off guard last year.
About a week ago i pulled all of the netting off my trees. It was doing more harm than good. Lots of new growth had worked its way through the mesh and my grafts were in jeopardy. It was a real pain taking the netting off. Now as the cicada action is winding down in the other parts of town it appears to have picked up here. I’ve found a few cicadas on my trees the last few days but have not noticed any cutting. I think they should all be dying off very soon. I hope I don’t get too much damage and for right now it doesn’t appear to too bad.
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I bought a few hundred feet of cicada netting and two bags of surround in preperation of the cicadas in NE Ohio. Haven’t seen any. Drove an hour north to Kirtland, OH a few days ago and there were quite a few. Don’t know if we missed them here or just haven’t got them yet. Some maps show us on the boundary of two broods, so we might get them next year. If not, I have all the bird netting I’ll need for quite awhile.
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