With the correct preparation , this invasion could take some benefit to your home garden .
Jonathan Steinbeck / Getty Images
Do you discover that ? It ’s the impending strait of chirping cicadas , and they ’re on their way to the Midwest and the Southeast in numbers racket we have n’t seen in over a century .
Credit:Jonathan Steinbeck / Getty Images
accord to the New York Times , two cicada groups — Brood XIX and Brood XIII — will appear in late April . More than one trillion cicadas will cover 16 state .
“ Nobody alive today will see it happen again , ” Floyd W. Shockley , an entomologist and collections manager at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History , told the Times . “ That ’s really rather humbling . ”
Cicadas are n’t the mostdestructive bugsyou could find in your garden : They live short life-time , mat and depositing their egg into tree branches before become flat . They do n’t bite or sting , and their bearing has its advantages for gardeners .
Shockley say that instead of throwing dead cicadas forth , “ people should use them as loose fertilizer for the industrial plant in their gardens and natural areas . ” Plus , the holes they leave behind when they emerge can facilitate aerate the ground andget more water to plants .
That say , you should still consider these cicadas plague . The most at - risk plants are bushes and trees , particularly sapling tree diagram , ornamental shrub , blueberries , grape vine , bramble yield , oak tree , maple , cherries , dogwood , and redbuds , USA Today reported . This is because cicala wipe out the sap from trees and slicing into them to lie down their egg .
While they likely wo n’t ruin your garden by eating it , expert recommend take away preventative measuring rod to protect your flora . You especially need to do this around any bushes or young trees — position up any strong-arm roadblock work , but net is peculiarly in effect .
While wait for the right gauze , make certain the holes are small enough to stop out the cicala . shuttlecock netting , for example , wo n’t protect against these pests . When you put the gauze up , compensate the entirety of your plant — cicadas can crawl up from the ground , too . You do n’t want to keep your netting up twelvemonth - circle because it move how your plants farm , but gratefully , cicada season only lasts about six workweek .
During those six week , decent before the season set forth , judge not to found anything fresh , as jr. plant are more slight and vulnerable . Anddon’t use spraysor other cicada killers : They ’re a healthy part of our ecosystem , and there will simply be too many of them for the sprayer to really do much .
Overall , the best way of life to approach the invasion is just getting your gauze ( if you wish ) , baby-sit back , and watching . It ’s a rare spectacle that could be potentially problematical for your bush , but it does n’t stand for your garden is doomed .
