Anyone seeing these guys yet? How worried should I be about my orchard of young trees?
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Can you net your trees? Fine mesh net tie around low on the trunk. Cicadas tore my fruit trees up last year.
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Cicadas did a lot of damage to my trees last year in 2024. I was hoping to not have a repeat this year. Question. Do they come back more than one year or are they gone until the next 17 year cycle???
The internet told me for years that they don’t eat anything after coming up from the ground. Posting this so that Google knows that cicadas do in fact, damage trees.
This is from 2021, when we had Brood X come to town. Not fun. I thought Surround might help encourage them to find other trees to lay their eggs in, but it didn’t seem to do anything.
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Yeah if you are in range, be very concerned. That is, unless you aren’t in a position to net your trees, in which case no sense in worrying about something out of your control.
Looks like we could get hit too. I don’t have any trees younger than 4 years old, but I don’t want my established trees damaged either, especially since we have a good fruit set on our apples this year.
They damage them when they deposit the eggs mostly, they do drink some sap but it’s not much
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Thanks
I had some of my trees damaged so bad, they died back to a little above 2 foot from the ground. These were 3 and 4 year old fruit trees. Now they have to start over 
Atleast they have good roots and are growing back quick from above the graft. But I had all my fruit trees pruned and ready for growing nice scoffolds in very early spring. Cicadas nearly killed them. The dripping gum from peaches and aprocoits was the hardest for me to stomach.
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Females lay eggs deep in the underside of horizontal and along the sides of vertical branches. It looks like someone took a buzz saw to the branch. Then after about 6 weeks the eggs hatch and drop to the ground. Then the tree can start to heal. Until then it’s wounds are open, so its best to prune the banches to decrease the chancea for infection of the entire tree. That is if wind or fruit load doesnt snap the branches first.
Netting is the only way I know of to minimize the damage.
Read more here
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Last year I bought “wildlife netting” from Walmart and was very pleased with it, especially given the price.
The apertures were like .25 or even .125 inch, small enough to exclude cicadas.
It was their store brand garden products line.
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Wow. that summer was tough- I remember simply walking we would get “attacked” if wearing white. Quite the damage. Did everything recover the following year?
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Was outside in the showers walking our new cat around the property. Saw a couple of cicadas in our rose bush. Jostled them a bit, but they were very lethargic. I’ve heard they start to come out after a warm rain, so this might be the beginning of the emergence.
Like I mentioned I was showing our new cat parts of the farm. He’s a 5 year old male we got from my wife’s friend. He’s been fixed and had all his shots. He’s a pretty friendly kitty. He apparently likes to be inside as he stands and scratches at our front door. He was an an outdoor cat so he’s not going to be let inside much. He’s pretty hefty but is a good jumper. Looks like he could stand to lose a pound or two.
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When netting for cicadas, make sure you tie the net low on the trunk. Cicadas both crawl and fly. Your goal should be to not allow any entry points into the netting interior.
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I think your cat says it wants to be an indoor cat…