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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] A plague of locusts!

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  • From: "Donna &/or Kieran" <holycow@cookeville.com>
  • To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] A plague of locusts!
  • Date: Thu, 15 May 2008 08:31:16 -0500

Uh, Ginda, I think you didn't have fruit trees when the cicadas came out that time. Their ovipositors do severe damage to twigs, which in young trees means the future main branches. And whenever and wherever a pear tree is damaged, you increase the possibility of blight entering the wounds. I'm very, very serious about how much my young trees can be hurt if I don't do as much as I can to protect them. And "17 year locusts" is a commonly used term, though it is not technically correct. I read an article years ago about the 17 year cicadas, the author talked about all the twigs that fell off from the damage and how he thought the trees looked greener the next year, he thought it was sort of like they'd been pruned. I wonder if it's because they were now stuck with only little bitty larvae chewing on their roots instead of big ones. About 5 years ago someone told me some of her trees were looking bad when they first leafed out, and then the cicadas emerged, so she thought they'd really been doing a job on the roots. We kind of forget what's going on down there sometimes. Donna




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