They’re the mark of summer for many people. For others, though, the ever noisy Cicada can mean only one thing – serious plant damage. Fortunately, it’s easier than you may think to destroy these loud little pests.

The Damage

While you may think Cicadas are nothing more than an annoyance, the reality is that they can do real damage to your plants. Younger cicadas literally drink the sap out of a plant’s roots, which may mean the flowers and fruit produced are diminished. More damage, though, can occur when the females decide to lay their eggs. This almost always happens inside of a tree. The female egg laying organ cuts through the bark in the tree, then they lay as many as twenty rows of eggs (with somewhere around 48 eggs per row). This intrusion on the tree’s bark may mean terrible things, particularly in the case of younger trees.

Understanding the Life Cycle

Once a cicada hatches, it burrows into the soil for years at a time. There are a variety of different kinds of cicadas, with the two most common being those with a thirteen year lifecycle and those with a seventeen year lifecycle. There are years where the two overlap, and that can lead to a serious increase in the number of cicadas. The size of the lifecycle determines the amount of time they actually spend underground.

Cicadas have long dark bodies and transparent wings. They grow to be about an inch and a half in length. The males make the loud buzzing noise most people associate with these creatures. Once they’re above ground, more than 40,000 of them can inhabit a tree at any given time.

Controlling Them

You probably can’t keep them from emerging initially, but you can control the level of plant damage they inflict. It’s possible to cover your youngest trees with mosquito netting to keep them off. You can also remove dead branches as soon as you notice them. If cicadas are predicted to hatch in the spring, be sure you don’t plant any new trees. If you do have an infestation, your best bet is to contact a Brevard County pest control service for help. They’ll not only make certain all of your cicadas are gone, but they may be able to help with residential lawn care concerns you have after an infestation, too.