Cicadas Damage BNL Oaks

July 25, 2008

Similar cicada damage reported in Cape Cod, MA. "Trees lining Route 151 in Falmouth have fallen victim to cicadas, who have laid eggs in their branches, causing some leaves to die. The brown patches give July an autumnal feel."

Members of the Lab community may have noticed that some of the branch tips of oak trees in the woods surrounding the Lab and along William Floyd Parkway are brown and dying. This damage was caused by the cicadas that you saw buzzing around the Lab last month. The females laid their eggs in the tips of the branches, causing them to turn brown.

This year, there were literally hundreds of thousands of Brood XIV cicadas that emerged from the ground to mate in the area around Brookhaven. The females laid multiple nests in tree branch tips, causing significant damage to the tips. This leads to the death of a number of branches.

Since the damage is only done to some branches of any particular tree, the trees still have significant leaf cover and will not be permanently damaged. The normal budding of the trees will still occur. The trees will likely recover by the end of the summer, and definitely by next spring.

More information on the Brood XIV hatch can be found here.

Identical cicada damage to oaks has been observed in other parts of the United States. Here is a report from the Cape Cod Times describing the phenomenon.

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