If you are like most people, you have been dreading the
pending onslaught of cicadas. For months, news reports have been lamenting the
eventual plague of cicadas which was to befall Northern Virginia. When the
articles prophesied the cicada plague, they failed to mention that we are in
the northern most reaches of Brood II territory. To view a map displaying Brood
II’s territory, click here.
As a landscape company, we obviously think about these types
of issues in regards to how they will affect us and our customers. The cicada
problem affects landscape companies in a few different ways. First, the obvious
problem is that you have crews out building patios, cutting lawns and
installing plant material while actively dealing with the infestation. There’s
nothing we as a company can do to get ready for that, other than to know that
when the cicadas come, it will have some effect on our productivity. The
not-so-obvious effect the cicada forecast has had on our business, is that we
have had customers who have chosen to postpone planting jobs until the Fall due
to the fear that the cicada would adversely affect their new plant material. On
the surface, this concern seems somewhat rational, but as you take a closer
look, you’ll see that the delay may have caused more harm than good. First off,
the cicadas do minimal damage to plant material. They don’t bother evergreens
and for the most part they leave shrubs and perennials alone. They do, however,
burrow their eggs into the terminal branches of deciduous trees. This has a
marginally negative affect on small to mid-sized trees such as Dogwoods, River
Birch, Eastern Red Bud and Crepe Myrtles. With the exception of the Dogwood,
the rest of those plants have such high growth rates that the plant quickly
outgrows what little damage was caused. The unforeseen problem that some
homeowners will encounter that chose to delay planting, is that we will be
getting the plants from a nursery which may have been affected by Brood II. So
if we had purchase the plants in the spring and installed them, they would have
summered safely here inside the Beltway, free from the effects of the cicadas.
Now this Fall, we will be buying plant material which was grown further south
and will potentially have some of the tip damage associated with cicadas.
If you were looking forward to the cicadas, just remember
that good things come to those who wait. Northern Virginia, including McLean,
North Arlington, Vienna and Great Falls, is well within the boundaries of Brood
X which made it’s last appearance here in 2004, and will return in 2021. To see
a map displaying the footprint of each of the broods in the Mid Atlantic, click
here.
