How to Protect Your Garden from Cicadas

The appearance of these pests happens when all your trees, flowers, seedlings, and lawns are in the midst of their critical spring growth. Since cicadas feed on sap and lay eggs on trees and other shrubs, they can damage your yard. Here you will find answer on how to protect your garden from cicadas.

What are Cicadas?

Cicadas are insect pests that resemble large flies with big heads. There are over 3,000 species of cicadas. The strategy of cicadas that harm our areas is to bring as many offspring into the environment at once, so that a large number of them can continue to reproduce. Most well-known insects hatch, eat, mate, and die in one season. Cicadas hatch periodically, suck sap from grasses for food, and then make their way underground to feed on plant roots. Then, years later, cicadas begin to move when the soil temperature reaches 18-20°C. Suddenly, all at once, the dormant bugs dig out of the soil, molt and emerge with new wings and a strong desire to mate. They swarm on trees, pierce the bark to suck sap from branches and twigs and produce incredible noise as each male cicada buzzes simultaneously in search of a mate. After four to six weeks, the noise subsides as the adults mate, lay eggs and die.

The Highest Risk is to Bushes and Young Trees

Cicadas are picky eaters. They do not bite people or animals, and adult cicadas only drink plant sap from woody stems and branches—where they also lay their eggs. The problem with these pests is that they attack young woody plants of all kinds. Tree seedlings, ornamental shrubs, blueberries, grapevines, blackberry, raspberry, and currant fruits are at risk, as are oaks, maples, cherries, dogwoods, and redbuds. Newly planted trees and woody plants with stems up to 3 cm in diameter are especially vulnerable to damage from cicadas, which suck sap and cut slits in tree branches to lay eggs. Making these slits on mature trees will not cause significant harm, as a mature tree can regrow damaged branches. Unfortunately, young seedlings under four years old can be killed or stunted as females lay up to 600 eggs in batches of 25 at a time.

Gardens and Lawns Should Be Spared

While cicadas swarming over your tomato vines and marigolds can be annoying they will not harm your garden flowers or vegetables. Cicadas also remain indifferent to lawns. You might find cicada exit holes about 1.5 cm wide with mud “chimneys” up to 8 cm high on your lawn. These holes are irritating but will not cause irreparable damage to your lawn and can provide beneficial aeration.

irrigation sprinklers service toronto

How to Protect Plants from Cicadas

  • Delay Any New Planting Prevention is the most effective way to protect young trees from cicadas.

  • Install Physical Barriers If you already have young trees and shrubs in the ground, the best way to protect them is to install a physical barrier between the cicadas and your plants. Cicadas prefer to lay eggs in slits on branches about 1.5 cm in diameter, so your task is to protect these branches. Wrap trees, bushes, and shrubs with mesh that has holes 1 cm in diameter or smaller to keep cicadas away from your plants. You can use fine insect netting or barrier bags for individual trees or shrubs. Make sure to tie the bottom of the bag or mesh tightly to the base of the trunk so that cicadas cannot crawl under the netting. Remove the netting when the cicada season is over to ensure better air circulation.

  • Avoid Chemicals Avoid using chemical insecticides for cicadas. Firstly, chemical insecticides are not as effective as netting. In one study, trees treated with common insecticides suffered 8-25 times more damage than trees covered with netting. Insecticides also need to be applied every two to three days for four to six weeks while adult cicadas are around since new cicadas will fly onto your trees from nearby areas. This is a large amount of insecticide that can kill bees and other beneficial insects, and also harm people, pets, and birds that come into contact with the insecticide or eat dead or dying cicadas.

  • Take Care of Watering and Mulching If your trees and woody plants have been damaged by cicadas, you can help them recover. Make sure your plants get enough water without letting the soil dry out, and consider applying mulch around the tree or plant (without touching the trunk) to help retain soil moisture and maintain moderate soil temperature.