Brood X Cicadas have been spotted this week in the orchard. Their arrival is somewhat later than had been predicted. Unseasonably cooler temperatures the first two weeks of May kept the ground temperature below 65 degrees. Cicadas favor warm soil temperatures above 70 degrees to emerge from their underground habitat and this past week’s upper 70’s and almost 80 plus degree days were just what was needed for the cicadas to emerge.
After seventeen years underground, where they have been since 2004, feeding on sap from the roots of plants, Brood X, one of the largest broods of cicadas, have emerged across fifteen states including the tri-state area of Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana. Estimates are that a billion cicadas will emerge and invade the area of these fifteen states; not millions, but billions.
When cicadas last appeared in 2004, the adults left behind baby bugs which burrowed underground and lived there for the past seventeen years getting their moisture from the tree roots . These baby bugs are now adults and as part of their natural cycle of life, these cicadas emerge in mass in the Spring of their 17th year. So, 2021 is our lucky year. Males attract mates by vibrating drum like tymbals on the side of their abdomens to produce sound. The sounds that are made can be deafening as the adults can emit sounds between 80 and 100 decibels, equivalent to a low flying airplane or a lawn mower. This sound or noise can be heard throughout the day or night.
Cicadas are not so pretty. Their “bug eyes” are red, large wings and overall a fairly large insect. When a cicada lands on your person, it’s not unusual to hurriedly brush it off. Adult cicadas shed their exoskeletons, attach themselves to the tree branches, mate, lay eggs and die off in about 6 weeks. The lifespan of the cicada above ground is about 4 to 6 weeks. So about late June or early July the adults will die off, while the hatched nymphs will drop off and burrow underground and stay there for 17 years, waiting to repeat their life cycles.
The damage done to young trees is caused by the adults laying eggs in the bark of the trees. At times the trees are riddled by the cicadas’ actions but it is not to the cicadas advantage to kill trees as the trees is their food source when they burrow under ground. Most of the damage we find from the cicada invasion is to the newly planted trees. Some suggest enclosing the young trees with onion sacks or other materials that will deter the cicadas from laying eggs. We’ve done this in the past several invasions but find that cicadas often outsmart us. Our fruit is not overly damaged by cicadas. We’re thinking that the fruit is just developing during the time frame of the cicadas appearance and is of not much interest to them as their main motive is to mate and reproduce. They have a short time frame to accomplish emergence, mating, laying eggs, hatching and reburrowing underground.
We have received several questions regarding collecting cicadas for dietary intake. Supposedly, the cicadas have a unique taste when ingested, similar to shrimp. It is not part of our plan to collect them; however, to each his own and good luck with that.