Wednesday, May 5, 2004

Cicadas planning Party of the Century

They are poised and waiting just below the damp earth.ÊAt the signal from an ancient, unknown timepiece, they emerge from the soil crawling up tree trunks, only to wait again.ÊTheir eyes are blood-red, as are their pulsing veins. On the fourth day, they commence to call, with a haunting and eerie song.

Is it “Night of the Living Dead” in your garden?ÊNo, it’s the 17-year cicadas. And they are ready to party.

After 17 years of sedentary, solitary life underground, the world’s oldest living insects have only a short time to mate before they die.ÊAnd they are ready to give it all they got.

The periodical cicadas are distinguished from the annual ones by their sudden and dramatic presence, and by their sheer numbers, 20-40,000 in a batch. Scientists name the broods by Roman numerals, and coming to a neighborhood near you sometime the second or third week in May is the ominously labeled “Brood X.”

Does this mean a plague of biblical proportions in your backyard?ÊWill you awake one morning to find your lovely garden a ruin of gnawed off stems and riddled leaves?ÊNot exactly, but it helps to know how this cicada behaves during his short stint here.ÊThen take a proactive approach.

They don’t like flowers or shrubs, and evergreens are usually safe, but susceptible to damage are oak, redbud, maple, hickory, hawthorn, and fruit trees.ÊOther plants are at risk of becoming stressed due to just the physical weight of such heavy infestations.

The males whistle to attract the ladies. After a courtship that gives a whole new meaning to speed dating the female lays her eggs.ÊIn this process she makes slits in a pencil-size twig or branch. This disrupts the sap flow, causing die-back and breakage.

Spraying a chemical insecticide that could be a hazard to your family and pets is not only ineffective, it might actually be detrimental because it could be lethal to killer wasps that help control the cicada.

So what can you do? Don’t just sit back and watch, be proactive. One option is to delay planting new trees and shrubs till fall if possible, and help your plants help themselves to prepare for these ugly intruders.

As for annuals and perennials, get a head start on the cicadas, “Plant early, and start with strong, healthy plants like Wave petunias,” suggest David Durr of DelHyde Garden Centers of Ohio, an area expected to be hit the hardest. “You should wrap young trees with cheesecloth or fleece, tying it at the base of the trunk.”

Another easy solution to boost your plants “survival instincts” and ability to survive stress is a spray of Messenger, a new product on the market this spring. It isn’t a traditional pesticide, but a plant vaccine that activates the plant’s overall health.ÊIt uses a naturally occurring protein called Harpin to turn up the plant’s own natural defense and growth mechanisms.

Just one spray of Messenger almost instantly triggers the plant’s immune system response.ÊIt grows faster and bigger and produces more flowers and fruit. Improving vigor and stamina enhances a plant’s resistance to environmental stress, including the Brood X cicadas.

“It’s only logical that the strongest and fittest will have a better chance of surviving the stress,” said Jeff McClellan, marketing manager of Eden Bioscience, developers of Messenger. “Messenger is like giving your plants vitamins, an hour workout and shot of wheat grass all rolled up in one spray.”

Messenger is easy to use.ÊJust mix with water and apply as a foliar spray. Unlike a pesticide which requires meticulous timing and use, Messenger is nontoxic and starts to work on contact.ÊWhat’s even better, each spray turns on these beneficial responses in the plant for about 3 weeks, so it’s the perfect proactive approach to put plants in a strong condition for an impending attack. For more information, visit www.messenger.info or ask your local fine garden center.

So when the cicadas come to your neighborhood this May, don’t run and hide. Put on a hat and join them in the garden for the party of the century.