Periodical cicada impact on trees
By BJ Price - Preble SWCD
Faithful readers will recall a previous article that covered periodical cicada development and emergence. By now, many of you have witnessed the “turrets” or little mud castles on the ground surface that the periodical cicada nymphs have constructed. If you have not seen the mud castles, look in the woods or near yard trees in places that haven’t been disturbed since 2004. Cicada populations can be very localized and they’ll be much denser in some places than in others.
After they emerge and become adults, which is usually around Mother’s Day, periodical cicadas can be identified by their red eyes and they will live for two to four weeks. After the adult’s exoskeleton fully hardens, they take flight and soon begin to mate and reproduce. Adults will feed very little, and what feeding they do consists of sucking sap from tender branches.