Its been real bad in Northern WV. Just not bad in my development. I have to roll up my truck windows on my drive home as the cicadas will fly in my truck. Certain neighborhoods are effected much more than others
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It is concerning seeing them all over the trees. They have and still are laying eggs on the smaller branches. Peaches and apples are getting hit the hardest. Will lose a lot of fruit this year I fear. Will wait and start some pruning in the next few weeks to cut out the broken limbs. Thanks for asking Clark.
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Bobc,
That Cicada is caught red handed cutting up your tree branch tips! Once the leaves drop you will see what they have been up to. The cuts weaken the branches and many will snap off the following year. I had hundreds of branch breaks this year. Lost track of them. The part I really hold against the cicadas are the diseases that enter the wounds.
Really frustrated with the cicadas right now. I can’t believe how poorly I timed them. I thought they would’ve been dead by now but they are at their worst. I took my damn netting off the same time I should’ve been putting it on. It sat there for 3 weeks without and cicadas flying around and my trees were growing up through the netting. I took the netting off to keep from damaging my trees and now the cicadas decide to come to my neighborhood. I can’t keep up with them. Too hot to spray stuff on the trees. Noticing a lot of slits now. Damn…
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They do a lot of damage speedster. It happens before you know it.
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In Amarillo there were cicada every yr all summer. The tree damage wasn’t that much but the constant racket all day every day sure got old…!!! Just another annoyance about that town. But hey the people were nice.
400 miles south in Alpine and no cicada, no squirrels, and only half the wind. How sweet it is…!!!
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Just wanted to reminisce about the cicadas that tore the heck out of my trees… So my other topic of Heavy Pruning = Heavy Pruning is so true. Both by me and a little help from my 17 year friends.
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I just saw some cuts on pictures of speedsters trees on another post. The cicada definately demonstrate the concept of branch girdling to produce more fruit. They will throw all your trees into fruit producing mode ready or not. My trees have mostly healed over from when I made this post but I run across some of their cuts from time to time. Not looking forward to seeing them again in 15 years.
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Clark I will post some better pictures when I get a chance. Luckily even though there are many scars from the cicada damage it didn’t seem to have much long term effect. The damage seems to heal itself pretty well and ends up leaving a weird looking scar that looks like sutures on the branches that are undeniable.
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I took a couple pics of last summer cicada damage. Sorry they aren’t very clear. You can see how the cicada cuts a Grove down the length of the branch and lays it’s eggs. Luckily, all of the cicada damage I saw was cosmetic.
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Cicadas!
I have them coming up like mushrooms near my house, which is weird because I didn’t think a swarm was predicted in this area for this year but they are here nonetheless. My kids have caught three of the emerging nymphs so far and brought them inside to let them shed their skins. They certainly appear to be periodic cicadas rather than the annuals.
I am in the northern VA area just outside of DC and I am clearly not the only one seeing them…
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Nothing up here in Baltimore yet. I hope it stays that way…
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Little bonus for those of you with Cicada damage the cuts they make to lay eggs technically is partial girdling which makes many trees fruit the following year or two.
Look like they are back. Southwest Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina growers need to be on a look out.
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I’m satisfied knowing they will be sleeping until 2032 here in Kansas. I’m sympathetic to those who will be impacted.
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2036 for me since we just had them last year. I really enjoy the unique experience that they bring, but they were a really hassle due to my fruit trees. I had to cover everything in cheesecloth to prevent damage. Most smaller trees or shrubs not covered got a lot of damage. And since I had to keep everything covered for 5 weeks during late spring, all the new growth got constricted and grew inwards. Had to splint a lot of branches to straighten them out. Here are some of my fruit trees and shrubs right before I unwrapped them. Like Christmas in July! 
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Here we have the cigale, every summer, all day long !!!
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I hadn’t thought of the possibility of that happening, but I’m sure it’s a pretty rare occurrence that only happens in certain areas. That had to have been quite the spectacle!
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