I used tulle on my young trees the year the cicadas came. It's definitely a good idea. Even established trees showed damage the next year.

Im a bit concerned as well, and have read mixed things....

What exactly is tulle and where would I buy it? Will cicadas be able to do damage through it where it touches the branch? Thanks!

Tulle (pronounced like 'tool ') can be found by the yard in places that sell fabric.

CF,

Look at the link below.

Tony

Here is a link that might be useful: Tulle

I had experience with brood IX in 2003. The damage was really bad--probably because I'm surrounded by woods. Those small branches that didn't break right away did so once fruit began to grow. I ended up pruning out most of the damaged branches at the end of June when the onslaught finally stopped so lost most of my fruit for 2 seasons. Apples, pears, plums were most susceptible. The only trees that weren't attacked were the paw paws.

I also had a horrible 2003, most of the growth that year got pruned off. I still see the remnants when a dead branch drops off of the high oak trees, they are all gnarled.

Next time they come I am going to keep my trees white with Surround. If I had only a few trees I would cover them.

Scott

Tulle quick ref. wedding vail fabric
I have also used it to cover my pears from birds.

I pronounce it Tweel, like the cookie

How effective is Surround at protecting against cicadas? To what degree can I count on it as a defense?

What about branch diameter? I've heard that cicadas have a strong preference for pencil-sized branches. Does that mean there's a size just slightly larger that's pretty well immune? I'm guessing I'll have no such luck but I'm fearing the worst.

Bumpin this up! Let's see what happens this season. From what I briefly surmised there's a 5-10 day lag between they show up and when females start laying eggs which sounds to be the only or at least dominant form of damage.

So, I will wait for them to pop up. Then get "cicada netting" white meshy stuff and possibly Surround.

I also hear this will not be as bad as in 2003. I don't know if anyone remembers 1996 fruit tree damage in VA/MD/DC... paging Don Yellman???

I also heard there is a chance they eat up leaves??? But I think the main damage is on pencil thick branches of younger trees... causing the twigs to burst due to eggs.

I still feel uninformed as to what's really goin down.

Floyd, they like pencil to fat pencil size, and a bit larger diameter if all the smaller wood is used up. Yes, they can scar up all the pencil-sized wood, I saw a lot of that on my young trees.

I looked at the map and I am mainly in Brood X territory and should not get too much Brood II. We'll see.

Scott

Scott got me curious commenting about a map, so I googled and found a very helpful website. Apparently I won't get hit for a couple years (makes me happy as right now I'm nursing 10 new baby fruit trees I waited for years to get). I thought the site might help someone else.

Pam in cinti

Here is a link that might be useful: Great cicada map outbreak area & when

Amarillo Texas had terrible annual cicadas, Tibicen dorsatus, I believe. The damage to fruit trees was usually modest but the terrible noise all summer was really annoying. They were bad every year and lasted all summer long.

Pam, thats one of the good maps and there are other ones. Below is a link to the Brood II emergence report map. It is mostly Alexandria, VA and southwest, and NJ and northeast. MD/PA in the center is more Brood X territory.

Scott

Here is a link that might be useful: 2013 brood II map

thanks for the better link Scott. Also wanted to mention that the first link talks about using foil around tree trunks to prevent the lil buggies from climbing up them. Seems like a good thing to try anyway.

I remember one year when I was a teen having to walk thru drifts of cicadas deep as snow drifts on my way to and from school. I still live in the same area so sometime, somewhere I bet I'll live thru that again.

Pam in cinti

Is there anything that can be left unprotected?

I thought they like woody stuff, not new green growth. I would have thought young grapes, blackberries, and raspberries are OK since it's 90% green new season growth.

I thought pears and peaches true tree form stuff with a bunch of 1 year old pencil thick brown wood are most at risk...

Do I really have to cover everything? Now I'm reading grapes, berries, and even roses are at risk.

My impression is only tomatoes can go unprotected and now I even doubt that.

How about regular spraying with insecticide? Once and Done? Maybe every 3 days or so?

Ideas please.

some fig growers are saying figs are less disturbed than Apple, peach plum etc

anyone know if blueberries, black berries, raspberries, grapes, figs, pomegranates also get hit bad?

maybe i can leave those uncovered and worry about peach plum cherry apricot pear persimmon trees?

I don't recall any in my cane fruits, figs or grapes. Figs have that sticky sap, any tree with sticky sap will probably be more or less safe as well. Pomegranates will probably get hit.

Look at the map I linked above and see if much is coming up in your area, they should be out by now. They are missing my area as far as that map goes and I only found one in my yard so far -- I'm not worried.

Scott

I'm going to have the big brood this year, too. Man! They are always so noisy at night, too.

Cicadas are pretty darned big. I wonder if we can net for them? Bird net, I mean. I need super airflow where I am. My trees aren't big yet.

I've had some damage on roses before (I'm a big rose grower), but unless it's a little rose, it doesn't cause a big problem. I live by the woods, though, so it may be different in more urban settings with fewer choices for the pests.

I've only seen one shell this year, near my little orchard :( I haven't heard them yet.

This post was edited by meredith_e on Mon, May 20, 13 at 23:36

Looks like they are getting active around here. This picture was taken by a friend earlier this week, about 10 miles north of me in the southern Pocono's (Eastern PA).

Here is some good infos on cicadas spray.

Tony

Here is a link that might be useful: Bugspray

It looks like the cicadas have missed me. My wife said she saw at least one about a half hour east of here (nearer Winston-Salem), but we haven't seen the first one here (a little further west).

tonytran:

Do those sprays affect edibility of the fruits???
Mike

cousinfloyd,

I'm in K-ville, and I only saw that one. Thank goodness!

Looks like it missed me--I was supposedly on the border and its appearance was extremely spotty.

How do you tell if you're going to get them by the map? I.e., how close do they have to be? Shoot, another thing to worry about.

Mike,

From the article, the safe spray is triazide once and done for fruits and veggies.

Tony

My 23-year old son has been fretting about the cicadas this year, though we've seen none so far at home. Our lot has only trees that we've planted over the last 20 years so maybe we don't have broods waiting to hatch. The reason he's upset is so many of our customers (pest control co.) call every year to get rid of the cicada killer wasps because they're big and scary, yet basically harmless to humans -- the males can't even sting. But you can't convince people of that when they see them hovering around their walkways. This year they'll be complaining about the cicadas not realizing they've destroyed their best defense against them by killing the wasps in previous seasons.

We have tons of wasps -- we do not kill them. Will this protect us from cicadas?

Those cicada killer wasps are huge and they are scary looking! I like how they grab a cicada mid-song and stab it with that scary stinger.

I've watched them do pretty good work over an hour or two, but I guess it depends on how many cicadas are out there. I wouldn't spray for the killers in any case (even though they are very huge and look very mean!).