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Covered by Cicada Save Email Print
Posted: 12:26 PM Apr 30, 2008
Last Updated: 12:26 PM Apr 30, 2008
Reporter: John Marra
Email Address: john.marra@wsaz.com

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More and more reports are coming in about seeing the pre exit holes made by the seventeen year periodical cicada.

Remember, when you start seeing these holes created by the cicada, they are due to emerge about two weeks later. It will take them a few days to recover from emerging from the ground after seventeen years.
You would be a little slow too if you awoke after sleeping that long. If you remember from a previous show where I mentioned that the sound they make, that high pitched sound, it used to attract a mate.

It’s interesting when visiting Brett Merritt at G and G Nurseries up on route 2 north of Huntington a few days ago; he mentioned an experience he had with the cicada 17 years ago. He and his brothers were helping their dad build his house on the river. They had two circular hand saws, one housing made of plastic and the other a more expensive saw with a metal housing. They quickly realized that the saw with the metal housing had a higher pitch and attracted so many cicada that they had to turn it off and run for cover. The plastic housing saw evidently had a different sound and they could continue their carpentry work without being swarmed by flying cicada. I’ve heard the same story with a weed eater.

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Posted by: Amy on May 16, 2008 at 10:07 AM
The only thing I have found to protect young maple tree from the cidadas is a frost cover. This will of course raise the temperature inside....it is not plastic though. Will this work okay or should I look for something online to purchase?

Posted by: shirley on May 15, 2008 at 10:06 AM
I awoke to hundreds of cicadas on my brick and porch . My weeping cherry was covered with them. How long do these thing hang around?

Posted by: Kelly on May 15, 2008 at 09:47 AM
The oaks, maples, apple/fruit trees on our property are full grown. Is there anything to protect the trees without having to get a "bucket truck" to be able to reach the trees to cover them?

Posted by: noah on May 15, 2008 at 08:00 AM
how long well the cicadas last

Posted by: Nancy on May 14, 2008 at 11:38 PM
Should I cover the entire dwarf Japenese Maple tree, including trunk, or just the leafy part?

Posted by: Maude on May 13, 2008 at 12:10 PM
Will the cicadas destroy our vegetable gardens?

Posted by: Mack W. Johnson on Apr 30, 2008 at 01:49 PM
I wish people would never use the word locust when referring to cicadas. It would be better to use the term of "Jarfly". I understand that this idea comes from local stories handed down that the mating sound of the male sounds like the word "pharaoh" and connected to the plague of locust in the Bible. This seems to be an Appalachian area based idea. Please go to these links for more information. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/05/070521-cicada-facts.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicada http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locust

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