[Arid_gardener] Cicada skins

[Tyler Storey]

Hi Cindy,
What you're more than likely seeing on your ash trees are the left-over
"skins" of cicadas.  Cicadas spend their early days in the ground under your
tree, feeding on roots.  In early Summer they emerge, making those holes you
see, and begin climbing up your tree trunk.  Part-way up, they split open
and the adult cicada, now with wings, emerges, leaving it's old clothes
behind.  
That high-pitched buzzing noise you hear these days is made by the adult
male cicadas singing love songs to potential mates.  
They cause minimal damage, except on very new and small trees, so you don't
need to be concerned about controlling them.  You may find some small slits
cut in the twigs of your trees where the female cicada lays her eggs, but
again, this damage is really minimal and no cause for concern except on very
small trees.
Birds will eat a good number of them -- I watched a pretty determined
sparrow flying around with one of them the other evening, stopping every now
and then to whack it on the ground until it stopped buzzing and then
swallowing it down whole.  Undoubtedly nutritious, but kind of gross.
Tyler

tyler at tylerstorey.com
http://tylerstorey.com
602-738-2978
-----Original Message-----
From: arid_gardener-bounces at CALS.arizona.edu
[mailto:arid_gardener-bounces at CALS.arizona.edu] On Behalf Of
cindyngates at qwest.net
Sent: Saturday, July 14, 2007 5:44 PM
To: arid_gardener at Ag.arizona.edu
Subject: [Arid_gardener] Question from Home-Hort WWW page

Cindy West
85296
cindyngates at qwest.net

I have found dozens of skeletons on the trunk of my shamel ash trees - they
look beetle like my husband says.  I also see several holes in my lawn near
these trees they look like someone stuck a thin pole in the ground and left
a bunch of holes.  Do you know what type of pest this might be and do I need
to worry about my trees or lawn?

Thanks for any help you can provide.
Cindy


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