Cicada problems??

They've not hit New Mexico, yet, but they will, and they'll drive our two MinPins bananas. Wife got one in her hair years ago, damn did she do a wonderful shreaking dance! 8*)

Grandpa

Bob S. wrote:

The cicadas won't bother your garden. the suck on the sap of tree roots when they are growing. This batch has been doing it for 17 years with no harm done.

They will fascinate some people, and annoy others. Birds and other bug eaters will love it. Your garden won't care one way or the other.

Ray

Media hype is a fact of life. They have had stories about the 17 year cicadas on the local new and we don't even have them this far north! They have been in the news more, this year, because this the year when the biggest brood, brood X (ten) hatches out. For those not familiar with the broods, I just searched for and found maps:

Steve

Bob S. wrote:

Of course, you shouldn't have any 17 year (or even 13 year) cicadas there. You are not in their range and neither am I:

Steve in the Adirondacks of northern NY

Grandpa wrote:

Alan

There are several different groups of cicadas in the country. Every year, there is a cicada hatch somewhere. I don't know why this particular hatch is hitting the news, when other hatches are only known locally. Go figure...

Ray

every year.

...and you are telling me they only show up every 17 years? If not, read my post again.

Steve

Grandpa wrote:

I live in central New Jersey and they are here. I don't think there is any damage or danger to worry about.

One thing I notice is their populations are very localized. I live in a wooded area, and there are enough around me to give the woods a strange, eerie sci-fi sort of feeling because of the sound they make. But it's not at all what I expected from the media hype.

Then I was out bicycling on Saturday, and in a big 50 mile loop, I heard the bugs here and there, but I only found one area where the cicadas where really out in force. But wow was it impressive! At the edges where the woods met farm fields, you could see thousands of them flying around. And the sound was really amazing - very loud, very strange, and almost constant for a 4 to 5 mile stretch of road I was on. The individual bugs can sound like a small gas engine (that has something wrong with it). The chorus of thousands of them together is really hard to describe, but it would be a good soundtrack to a horror movie. ;-)

Here's a photo and a recording of the sound:

OK, there's the problem right there. We were talking about 17 year cicadas. The maps show the ranges of the 17 year cicadas and the 13 year cicadas. What you have in NM is one (or more than one, perhaps) of the other species of cicada. I have read that there are about

Steve

Grandpa wrote:

I'm in southern Indiana, which seems to be the epicenter (or at least one epicenter). We have tons. They love our dogwood tree. Basically, the only damage they are doing, nowt hat they are laying eggs, is to small tree branches. Some small trees will have problems, since the cuts they make cam interrupt the flow of sap in the branches, so people with small new trees have them covered with netting, but older trees are just losing a few branches. They will bounce back just fine (a good pruning won't hurt them that much).

It is fun to watch people freak out when they fly up or land on them. Cicadas won't hurt people - they dont bite or sting - but they freak out just because they have beady red eyes.

As for the hype, I think things are about what was predicted here. some parts of town hardly have any (where there is new construction, where there has been lots of grading, where large trees didn't exist 17 years ago), and others, like our neighborhood, are covered. It is saving money on birdfood, since the birds, chipmunks and squirrels are all eating the cicadas.

Meagan

I've heard of them being used for bait to catch Bass but have not tried it myself. I know for a fact my wife went skitzo when one landed in her hair and started buzzing its wings etc. They drive my MinPins nuts too, especially the female.

Grandpa

Meagan M Eller wrote:

I suppose it depends on what you grow. It looks like we won't get any chestnuts this year. The end of virtually every branch on our trees have been killed. Other trees don't seem to be as sensitive as the chestnuts. Larger trees hardly notice the loss of the leaves at the end of each branch but smaller trees are hurt a bit. With trees (like chestnuts) that bloom at the end of the branches, if you lose all the flowers, you lose all the fruit.

My brother and I decided to taste them. They don't have much flavor at all. He ate one raw and spat out the shell. I roasted mine and had it with a marshmallow. It added a bit of a crunch but that's about all.

:) The cicada. Chestnuts have a nice flavor.