Dogday Cicada/Locust

Cicada; image from Wikimedia

Common names: Cicada, Dogday Cicada, Harvestfly, Harvestman Cicada, Dogday Locust, Locust

Scientific name: Order Homoptera, family Cicadidae, many genera and species

Size: Adult—1" to 3"

Identification: The big insects that make all the noise in mid-summer. They have wide, blunt heads with big bulging eyes and clear, brittle wings. Empty nymphal skins can be seen attached to trees, shrubs, and buildings in the summer. Skin looks like a hollow June bug skin.

Biology and life cycle: Males sing in a loud, sustained, shrill song in the summer. Nymphs have stout brown bodies with large front legs used as scoops. They feed on roots and molt until ready for the last molt. They dig out of the soil, climb a tree, and attach to tree bark or sometimes windows and door screens. Adults emerge during the final molt through a slit in the back, feed for a 5 or 6 weeks, mate, and then lay eggs in slits in tree branches. In two months the eggs hatch and the nymphs drop to the ground and burrow into the soil.

Habitat: Any treed area, conifers and mixed woods. Also in shrubs.

Feeding habits: Nymphs feed on tree roots. Plant damage comes from the egg-laying slits in stems, which cause tip growth to die.

Economic importance: Cause little major plant damage. Most serious damage comes from the egg-laying slits in the bark of small branches.

Natural control: Cicada killer wasps.

Organic control: We know of no effective techniques yet. There are never enough of them in any one place. Beneficial nematodes will help.

Insight: Wrongly called locusts. Females have no sound apparatus. Only males make the sound. They probably defend themselves with their high-pitched sound. The male, which is sometimes called the harvest fly, is responsible for the sad, sustained sound that fills the air on hot summer days. This sound is a mating call and also a means of protection, so loud it hurts the ears of some predators.

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