Will Cicadas Eat my Vegetable Garden?

[zookprqn]

I'm new to gardening in the south! So, from another post I learned that I have Japanese Beetles eating my leaves, as I am happily dunking JB's in to my soapy water solution and I come across this HUGE prehistoric looking bug! Eeeeek...I hate big creepy looking bugs! And this one sent me, at a very quick pace I might add, back in to the house to research just what the heck it was!

As you may have figured by the subject line I figured out that this ugly looking bug is a Cicada. Upon further research I have discovered that this is the insect that makes all the noise here! I've asked many locals what bug it was and they couldn't tell me! I learned all about molting and how they make the noise and that it is only the male that makes the noise.

My question is...are they harmful to my veggie/flower gardens or not? I found 10-15 of them...most are on my lilac bush out front. One was on a garden stake in my hummingbird/butterfly garden. Do I need to worry about them eating everything (their size makes me think they could haul off one of my tomatoes with little effort! ) in my garden?

Help!

[Kisal]

The adults, which don't live all that long (a few days to a couple of months) suck sap from plants. They don't have chewing mouthparts.

It's the larvae that are most harmful, because they live in the ground and eat the roots of plants. They are large, whitish/grayish grubs similar to Japanese beetle grubs.

There are always a few cicadas around in the summertime. The amount of time it takes the larvae to mature varies from 9 months to as much as 13 and 17 years, depending on the species. The 13-year and 17-year varieties hatch out en masse in hordes. It's quite amazing to see ... IMO anyway!

Wikipedia has a nice article about cicadas [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicada]here[/url].

My brother, who was 2 years older than I, used to torment me by catching cicadas, then sneaking up behind me and dropping them down my shirt. He did the same thing with crawdads. I must have put on quite a good show, screaming and running around like an idiot, or he wouldn't have continued the practice.

[applestar]

My father used to tell me how he grew up catching the plentiful cicadas -- adults and ready to molt juvies -- during the summer when he was a boy, and lament how around suburban Tokyo districts, they had all but disappeared. So I've learned to equate lack of cicadas with over development and urbanization, and feel glad that they not only visit but actually live in my garden.

On several occasions, I've accidentally dug up the pale tan~creamy white grubs (they actually have a more developed head and eyes than Japanese Beetle Grubs -- anyone see Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind? They kind of look like the Ohm creatures) and hurriedly patted the disturbed soil back over them to tuck them back in.

Many of the 13 and 17 year cicadas Kisal mentioned don't ever make it to adulthood because the trees, under which their mothers laid their eggs for protection and nourishment get uprooted or destroyed before they are ready to emerge.

[rainbowgardener]

We have a major concentration of the 17 year cicadas where I live. It's a good thing they don't eat leaves or there wouldn't be a leaf left for miles around! We have literally millions (possibly billions!) of them in huge dense swarms, spreading over many square miles. It's weird and interesting, but kind of creepy...

Every wild critter, birds and mammals, eats themselves silly on cicadas during that time. The cicadas are slow and stupid and just sit there and let themselves be caught. Their only defense is their numbers, there are just way too many of them for the critters to eat them all, or even come close.

[Kisal]

We don't have periodical cicadas out here. Ours are all annuals. I remember reading online a lot of recipes and cooking instructions for cicadas, during the most recent emergence of the 17-year cicadas, in 2004, though. I wouldn't have the nerve to taste one, myself!

[zookprqn]

My issue has taken care of itself! They have all "hatched" and left behind their little prehistoric looking shells!

I have holes, about a 1/4 to 1/2 in diameter, in my yard. I'm guessing that they are from the Cicadas coming up from the ground. At first I thought they were snake holes and got a bit freaked out. But they appeared at the same time the Cicadas did.

[rainbowgardener]

Yup, the cicadas leave behind nice smooth cylindrical tubes... Interesting effect when you have millions of them!

[gixxerific]

Their holes are natural aeration. To bad it comes with a price.

I have noticed a few around here lately. Mainly their skins on my trees.

I remember the last "coming" of them en mass. It was crazy you couldn't hardly drive down the highway with your windows down it was so deafening.

[Ozark Lady]

I remember catching cicadas and june bugs, and tying a light weight string on them, and flying them around, as a child.

They were great pets to fly around on that string. But, we didn't have video games so we had to make do with strings on bugs, and kick the can!

[The Helpful Gardener]

There are certain varieties (periodicals and dog day cicadas) that can do great damage to trees when they lay eggs in them; [url=https://www.ca.uky.edu/HLA/Dunwell/KHC/Cicada%20damage.JPG]looks like stitching coming undone[/url] as the larvae hatch out...

But veggies? Not so much...

HG