I think they like branches that are a little thicker than anything you’ll have on a new haskap or bramble. Freshly planted fruit trees are probably a bigger concern. Doubt you’ll have an issue but if you want to be extra safe you can buy some mosquito type mesh to cover them with for a couple weeks. It’s cheap.
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They are here in Arlington, VA in force. Probably one per square foot on a lot of the sidewalks and always flying into me when I try to walk the dog.
Bushes, small trees, even my pepper plants are littered with shells.
The rain is washing the dead ones and shells down into the gutters beneath the trees.
They’ve been noisy for a few days and just started laying eggs yesterday. They are slicing up even 2 inch thick trunks. What was all that stuff about pencil-thick branches - they didn’t get the memo. The wet spots show where the sap is leaking from the egg-laying. There were a half dozen here but some flew off when I got close with the camera.
Surround is on pretty good I thought but seems to have no effect, oh well.
I have nets on the two persimmons I have in ground, but it is 1/4 mesh and they are getting in (or under). Their favorite seems to be the pears. I can shake an 8 foot tall bushy seckel pear tree I have and have probably a hundred fly out. Ugh.
Good news? Well, the birds and squirrels are so stuffed on cicadas they are leaving everything else alone, including the Girardi mulberry they usually find pretty irresistible.
I didn’t do as much dormant pruning as usual, thinking it might be a good year for more summer pruning. I think I’ll see how the trees look in a few weeks and try to prune away the parts that look the worst and hope to get enough growth and new fruit buds set by fall to make next year reasonably productive. Pretty depressing.
How’s everyone else fairing?
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I am going to try Surround to see if it discourages them at least some.
They’re out in full force and I only netted a couple things. Will probably pay the price.
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Surround is not going to completely stop them but I hope it slows them down at least… I have my tree bottom branches well-covered and will know in a few weeks if I get less damage than 17 years ago. @zendog let us know if you find any egg laying slits in the Surround covered branches. Showing up and just checking it out is fine, they can do all they want of that. Just don’t lay eggs there!
I netted all of the trees I didn’t want to lose any limbs on since they were young. Maybe a dozen trees total. I might end up wishing I had netted more.
I didn’t spray a few of my bigger trees with Surround, the mulberry and the nuts. It will be interesting to compare the damage I get on those with the trees I put Surround on.
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I can see holes in the soil of my pots where the cicadas have emerged. They leave their shells on the soil then fly away!
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@zendog @BG1977 how are things going on your cicadas? I am starting to see a few egg laying events, not many so far but it could grow. here are a couple things I learned.
- Some of the slits are on completely vertical shoots. I did not remember any of those from last time but it could be that my 17-year memory was off.
- In my orchard 90% of the cicadas are in the apples and pears. They are in other things but not in the quantity.
- I found an easy way to clear out most of the cicadas if it is cool out: shake all the trees, smoosh what you can find on the ground, then come back in 10 minutes and they will all be walking up the trunk again (they don’t want to fly in the cold). Smoosh liberally
Some will fall to the ground but it will be right at the base of the tree so easy to get 'em all – smO0O0O0sh 
- I’m not sure how much the Surround is helping, but my guess is it is helping a bit at least. So far I found only two slits on Surround-covered limbs.
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Be careful where you’re standing when you shake that tree. I gave it a try this morning and learned this article is absolutely correct. It was probably too warm when I was shaking the tree, but the disruption definitely set off the “shower” - yuck!
This is the first day it is getting warm again and I’m seeing plenty of activity on the trees. Mostly apples and pears as you said, which they are definitely damaging. I don’t know if the surround is slowing them up or not, but definitely not stopping them. And they seem to hit the vertical and horizontal wood about the same. They are also on my persimmons which are netted which is only somewhat effective since they’ll crawl around until they find their way in.
We’ve lost several large trees in my yard and my neighbors’ yards, so the trees are a bit more like targets in an open field. I’ll be glad when this is over.
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Eeewww. This is why I live where the air hurts my face.
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Same, more or less. If it’s warm, they get pissed if you shake the tree, and make a lot of noise. 
I have a couple small branches that broke off a couple trees but so far minor to moderate damage at worst.
I have noticed the vertical thing, too. On black raspberry primocanes in particular
So far it’s minimal, and not enough to cause withering of the shoot. I have also seen it on 3/4” thick branches.
Rarely do shoots wither, they just get all gnarled. The problem I had 17 years ago was many of my trees were 2-year olds and I didn’t want gnarled permanent scaffolds and so I pruned out all of the damage. On bigger trees it doesn’t really change all that much, some limbs will get too weak and break off at the damage but most seem to heal over enough to keep on going.
My Surround coat is getting thin due to rains, I am going to re-apply and see if it helps. I need to spray anyway for the moths. At least the curc is done for the year at this point; I had a better than average year in that battle with only the apricots getting hit heavily.
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I’m still to have any activity at my home and I wonder if maybe my brood went extinct. Surrounding counties have reported sightings and I have nothing yet. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I’ll luck out!
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When are these damn things done??
Where I am ,in western West Virginia, brood X was not supposed to be here this year, … one map showed a small dot here for brood X.
About a week ago I started hearing “THAT sound “
Saw several red eyed ones flying around . Last few days they seem to have disappeared. I really think the birds cleaned them up. Not many here anyhow.
But “That sound “ reminds me of the sound track of the movie …
Fantastic planet , it’s French version on YouTube …
For it’s time ,1973 ,a wonderfully strange movie.!
Worth a look ? If you are bored.
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Those flagging tips are probably OFM, not cicadas. I just sprayed my peaches yesterday for that reason. The first picture is definitely cicada damage. So far I found one slit in a peach tree and one in a plum and the rest are in apples or pears. Nearly all the susceptible wood is still undamaged, but the show isn’t over yet.
It seems like the earlier emerging ones are already dying, we have masses of dead adults on the ground. My wild guess would be 1-2 weeks more.
This 70 year old Chinese chestnut is how every tree in my yard looks here in the heart of Brood X- Howard County Maryland. I live up against the park and the flow of cicadas out of the woods is wild to watch. If you walk around my yard they will land on you.
The noise is incredibly loud all day long. It’s hard to describe how many there are. Look at the base of this tree and zoom in. Check out how many are on the bark itself. So many that they hatch out on each other’s backs sometimes. The branches have a cicada every foot or so on every branch. So many dead ones that it stinks.
And still every night millions more are crawling out of the ground. It’s totally insane and going strong.
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