The cicada's brilliant eyes, veiny wings, and persistent hum herald the arrival of warm weather every year, but no one enjoys seeing them float around in the pool or buzz by the grill. These annoying pests can be avoided with regular inspections and upkeep. Fortunately, there are options available if you're trying to figure out how to eliminate cicadas. If you require assistance, calling a professional exterminator is the best option.

Cicadas have bulging eyes and wing veins that make them look like they came straight out of a movie about science fiction. They are also quite loud and very huge. Cicadas, which only come out once a year, provide a constant buzzing sound during the summer. Seasonal cicadas arise from the soil every 13–17 years, bringing with them increased numbers and a constant buzzing sound.

The cicada's loud, piercing songs might be a nuisance, but they can also damage crops and trees. Humans are safe from them, but their sheer numbers and incessant chatter can be annoying. You'll need to take preventative measures if you want to know how to eliminate cicadas.

Depending on their species, adult cicadas can be anywhere from 2 to 3 inches long and feature a metallic green, black, or dark reddish-orange coloration. They have transparent, veined wings that are far longer than their bodies. Those of this species have large, bulbous eyes in either red or black, and long, slender legs. Usually, the presence of cicadas in the area may be detected through the distinctive pulsing, high-pitched buzz they produce.

Cicadas aren't likely to harm you, but they're also not exactly the soundtrack you'd pick for a day in the park. By staying one step ahead of them, you can stop the infestation before it even starts.

Safety First

Although cicadas are not harmful to humans or animals, they can swarm in response to stress. When hosing them down from bushes and trees, you should protect your eyes from flying debris by wearing sunglasses or another form of eye protection.

When working in the yard during a cicada invasion, be sure to protect your eyes and ears with a wide-brimmed hat. After consuming tree sap, cicada bugs will release any extra fluid from their bodies. The skin may react negatively to this discharge.

Don't forget that tick season coincides with cicada season. Ticks call trees, gardens home, and deep lawns so be careful if you decide to explore those areas. Wear long pants and socks and tick repellent, and then inspect yourself well after being outdoors.

Methods for Getting Rid of Cicadas

• Maintaining well-pruned and clipped shrubs and trees will help reduce cicadas. By keeping everything in order, cicadas will have fewer places to hide, making them easier to eradicate.
• Before each season and about a month before a cicada emergence, spray the yard and gardens with a broad-spectrum insecticide for prevention.
• As soon as the weather warms up, or as quickly as you hear the cicadas' characteristic song, you should start checking your yard for them.
• Cockroach and cicada waste should be removed as soon as possible to prevent a lingering stench and a growing mess.

Step 1: Examine your property

After spotting a few cicadas, check the branches of nearby trees and bushes to see whether there are any nests. In order to spot them, you'll need to keep your eyes peeled and ears perked. Cicadas can also be detected by the V-shaped cuts they make in the leaves of plants. In order to lay their eggs, cicadas employ oviposition and cut holes in the leaves of their host plants. This is not harmful to plants, but it does make them look bad. However, it is reported that oviposition causes harm to apple trees and causes them to accumulate less wood than control trees.

The cicadas can't reproduce inside like the crickets can. Even if a cicada flies in via an open front door, it won't settle down and have babies. A cicada that has found its way inside can be easily knocked down and stunned with a fly swatter.

Step 2: Spray insecticides

Since cicadas lack stingers, they are not an immediate threat like wasps. Insecticide protection is recommended because cicada grubs feed on root system and females put their eggs on leaves. The most effective option is a general-purpose pesticide specifically formulated for use against cicadas. You should seek for one that can continue to keep insects at bay even after you've applied the treatment.

Both springtime and late summer are optimal periods to treat for yearly cicadas. If recurring cicadas are expected to emerge, however, you should schedule an additional application approximately a month in advance.

Cockroaches can be discouraged from entering the house by spraying the area around it. Apply the pesticide 3 feet away from the base of the building and three feet up the side. Seal any exterior openings, including those around windows, doors, electrical outlets, and plumbing fixtures.

Spray the entire yard, from the back to the front, covering the grass and any decorative plants. Fruit trees and gardens should not be sprayed with insecticide since the chemical could end up in the fruit or vegetables.

People and animals should keep clear from the sprayed area for a minimum of 2 to 4 hours after the pesticide has been sprayed, or as long as the instructions state.

You may have heard of the cicada-killing wasp. Unless they too have been eradicated by the broad-spectrum insecticide, this species and a few other large wasps can help reduce the cicadas' numbers naturally. If you want to make sure you don't accidentally spray the nests of these useful insects, read the labels and use caution when applying the product. Cockroaches can reproduce inside of homes, but cicadas cannot. An occasional stray cicada may find its way inside through an open front door, but it won't settle down and have babies. If a cicada makes it inside, you can knock it down and shock it with a fly swatter.

Step 3: Use a sprayer to blow cicadas off trees and shrubs, then use netting and foil tape.

The cicada is a root parasite that feeds off the roots of trees and plants. Although annual cicadas don't appear to harm plant roots, periodic cicadas can. Researchers found that whereas cicada emergence had no influence on tree health in the year before, it had a significant negative impact on tree growth the following year.

Cicadas may be stopped from ascending a tree if a foil barrier tape is placed around its trunk. Cicadas can be deterred from fruit trees and other delicate plants by covering them with thin netting or cheesecloth. It is possible to eradicate and dispose of insects and cicadas by spraying them with a powerful water stream from a hose. Cicadas aren't very fast, so you may also manually remove them from trees.

Apples, ashes, cherries, chestnuts, dogwoods, elms, hickories, maples, oaks, peaches, pears, and sappy pears are all vulnerable to cicada damage when they are young. Planting these trees during cicada years is discouraged, and insecticide and netting should be used to protect any new saplings. Trees shorter than 4 feet in height may not make it because the cicadas will eat their roots.

Step 4: Cover hot tubs and pools

Cicadas often choose pools and hot tubs as their resting places because of the warmth and humidity they provide. Unfortunately, they are doomed to perish once they enter the water because they cannot swim. Their bodies could be too big for filters and circulators, leading to clogging and overheating. When not in use, keep swimming pools and hot tubs covered tightly to prevent cicadas from landing in them, and quickly remove all cicadas that do.

Step 5: Schedule yard work for early morning or twilight, and wear a hat under trees.

Cicadas use vibrations in their songs to attract a mate. Besides air molecules colliding, what else creates vibrations audible to the human ear? Power shovels, rakes, and weed-whackers! Cicadas may interpret these sounds as signs of a potential partner or multiple potential mates, and they may fly in from afar or wiggle out of the ground to check it out. To avoid swarms of cicadas while working in the yard, schedule your chores for the morning or late afternoon, when temperatures are typically lower.

At any time of day, you should cover your head. Keep your neck and head covered because the cicadas in the vines above you are going to stuff themselves with nectar and then poop it out.

Step 6: Remove any carcasses as soon as possible

Dead cicada bodies will accumulate no matter what you do. Get rid of them right away. To start, a pile of cicadas is disgusting to look at and will soon start to rot and stink. For another, both living and recently deceased cicadas are popular morbid snack items for birds, pets, and other wildlife. Animals should avoid eating the carcasses, particularly when you've used an insecticide. The wings of cicadas are similarly sturdy, and can cause animals trouble by getting stuck in their throats or stomachs.

It's possible that a snow shovel will be needed in addition to a dustpan and broom for this cleanup if your region is experiencing a very heavy cicada season. If you didn't apply insecticide, bury the bodies or compost them.

Step 7: Call in the pest control experts

Buying and installing insecticides and barriers can be a significant effort, especially if you have a big yard or a heavy infestation (or if you're just scared of bugs). In order to effectively and locally apply mitigation measures, it is best to hire a professional pest control agency, as they will already have the necessary equipment and supplies on hand and will have a better idea of where the cicadas are lurking in a yard. The price will change depending on the dimensions of the yard and the number of techniques you wish to implement. But if there are more bugs in the yard than you can handle, it may be worthwhile to spend the money.

Not All Cicada Species Are Harmful

Many biologists think that the 17-year life cycle of cicadas evolved as protection against harsh climates and predators. The large swarm of cicadas that appears every cycle can also be attributed to natural selection. Despite being slow and vulnerable, these creatures employ their large numbers to protect their young from predators above ground.

Insects that crawl from the ground and climb the trees, bushes, and house can be a little unnerving to observe, but they usually don't do any harm and may even provide some benefit. Their dead corpses enrich the soil, and the holes they dig in your grass serve as free aeration. Birds, opossums, and racoons, among others, can all profit from the readily available food source.

Although cicadas serve a useful purpose, they may be an annoyance to humans and a major threat to young or weak plants.

How to Prevent Brood X from Ruining Your Yard

Those of you who started homesteading just as COVID-19 was making its way over the globe need not worry about the food garden you established, but you should take precautions to save any saplings, ornamental shrubs, or other plants having woody stems and branches. To save your delicate vegetation, try these measures:

• Put up a wall or something similar. Wrapping young trees (less than four years old) in netting is recommended. Bugs can't get through if the holes are larger than 1cm. If you want to prevent them from climbing the tree, wrap the trunk in netting. In addition, the netting should be taut, but not so much so as to bend the branches.
• Maintain a neat and tidy lawn. Some people think that cicada infestations can be reduced by maintaining a lawn that has few bare spots in the soil at the conclusion of the growing season. By doing so, you may lessen the subsequent cycle's emergence of bugs.
• As soon as they're gone, fix the damage. The trees and shrubs in your yard need roughly an inch of water once a week as the cycle nears its end. Mulch placed around the plants' foundations can aid in water retention.
• If you can, try to avoid using any chemicals. Using harmful chemicals like pesticides, bleach, or essential oils won't solve the problem. Given the vast number of cicadas, the amount needed to eradicate them would be harmful to the plant and other insects and animals in the region.

Conclusion

Cicadas only appear once a year. Cicadas can grow to be between 2 and 3 inches long and can be a shiny metallic green, black, or reddish-orange in coloration when they reach adulthood. Cicadas may cause harm to trees and crops, but they pose no threat to people. In order to lessen the number of cicadas, it is important to keep your shrubs and trees well-manicured and trimmed. Cicadas can be identified by the V-shaped cuts they make in plant leaves.

If a cicada makes its way inside, you can use a fly swatter to knock it down and temporarily stun it. To survive, the cicada parasitizes the roots of trees and other plants. Thin netting or cheesecloth can be used to protect fruit trees and other delicate plants from cicadas. Spraying insects and cicadas with a strong water stream can kill them and get rid of them for good. Yard work is best done in the early morning or at dusk, and hats should be worn under trees.

These sounds could be interpreted by cicadas as indicators of the presence of a possible mate or even multiple potential mates. Birds, pets, and other wildlife often eat both live and dead cicadas due to their popularity as a morbid snack. It's unsettling to see creepy-crawlies making their way up trees, bushes, and the house, but these insects rarely cause any damage. Hiring a professional pest control service is recommended in order to apply mitigation measures efficiently and locally. By keeping the lawn neat and tidy at the end of the growing season, cicada populations can be kept in check.

Content Summary

• You'll need to take preventative measures if you want to know how to eliminate cicadas.
• By staying one step ahead of them, you can stop the infestation before it even starts.
• Wear long pants and socks and tick repellent, and then inspect yourself well after being outdoors.
• Maintaining well-pruned and clipped shrubs and trees will help reduce cicadas.
• Before each season and about a month before a cicada emergence, spray the yard and gardens with a broad-spectrum insecticide for prevention.
• After spotting a few cicadas, check the branches of nearby trees and bushes to see whether there are any nests.
• Since cicadas lack stingers, they are not an immediate threat like wasps.
• Spray the entire yard, from the back to the front, covering the grass and any decorative plants.
• You may have heard of the cicada-killing wasp.
• The cicada is a root parasite that feeds off the roots of trees and plants.
• It is possible to eradicate and dispose of insects and cicadas by spraying them with a powerful water stream from a hose.
• Cicadas often choose pools and hot tubs as their resting places because of the warmth and humidity they provide.
• When not in use, keep swimming pools and hot tubs covered tightly to prevent cicadas from landing in them, and quickly remove all cicadas that do.
• Dead cicada bodies will accumulate no matter what you do.
• Get rid of them right away.
• In order to effectively and locally apply mitigation measures, it is best to hire a professional pest control agency, as they will already have the necessary equipment and supplies on hand and will have a better idea of where the cicadas are lurking in a yard.
• But if there are more bugs in the yard than you can handle, it may be worthwhile to spend the money.
• Although cicadas serve a useful purpose, they may be an annoyance to humans and a major threat to young or weak plants.
•  Maintain a neat and tidy lawn.
• Some people think that cicada infestations can be reduced by maintaining a lawn that has few bare spots in the soil at the conclusion of the growing season.
• The trees and shrubs in your yard need roughly an inch of water once a week as the cycle nears its end.
• Given the vast number of cicadas, the amount needed to eradicate them would be harmful to the plant and other insects and animals in the region.