North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Ginda Fisher <list@ginda.us>]

Cicadas aren't locusts.

I don't think the adult eats at all.  It certainly doesn't eat much.  
Mostly they just make a lot of noise, mate, lay their eggs, and die.

Because the larvae take so long to grow (17 years for each 1-inch bug) they 
don't do a ton of damage, either, although they do suck sap from the roots 
of your trees.

Unless you are worried about damage from the physical weight of the bugs, 
or from the feasting birds and other critters, I don't think you have a lot 
to worry about.

I lived in Princeton, NJ, the last time their 17 year cicadas emerged, and 
I quite enjoyed the show.  You could tell where there'd been construction 
in the prior 17 years, since those areas didn't have many bugs.  The areas 
with ancient trees were pretty wild.

Best of luck,
___
Ginda

...... Original Message .......
On Wed, 14 May 2008 22:08:01 -0500 "Donna &/or Kieran" 
<holycow@cookeville.com> wrote:
>"Which would you rather have, a broken leg or a hundred ticks on you?"  
One 
>of my kids loved to pose questions like this when he was little.  The 
>trouble is, we aren't offered a choice in real life.  No one asked us last 
>year whether we would rather have drought or hail, we just got the drought 
>and someone else got the hail and tornadoes.  This year it appears we will 
>be blessed with 17 year cicadas.
>     Most of my trees will simply be damaged, but I assume that the pears 
>will be eaten up with blight next year if the cicadas have their way.  I 
>remember from some 25 years ago in east TN that they like branches of a 
>certain size, more or less horizontal.  Some of my very small trees I 
think 
>I will tie with branches vertical.  The next size up I can sew up in nylon 
>curtains like I did the previous time.  But that still leaves me with a 
>number of pears, and a few apples as well that are too big to wrap whole. 
>Some have horizontal branches that I just grafted on the ends, if I lose 
the 
>branch, I lose the graft as well.  I have some old tree wrap, I'm thinking 
I 
>could spiral it on those branches I must save.  Or can I get away with 
just 
>running masking tape along the bottom of the branch?
>    Any suggestions?  I'm going to leave some native trees as decoys, 
trees 
>I'd planned to take out but will now wait on.  Wish I'd known this was 
going 
>to happen, we'd have left more.  I made the mistake this winter of 
deciding 
>to tie down my 2oth Century branches instead of letting them stay straight 
>up.   I don't have to save everything from damage, but some things need 
>reliable protection.  Thanks.   Donna    Z6, Tennessee 
>
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