17-year cicada

Periodical Update: Cicada Observations and Educational Opportunities

The anticipated magical appearance of Brood X (10) of the 17-year periodical cicadas (Magicicada spp.) is getting closer with each day. On one hand, the cicadas are providing clear evidence they are nearly reading take the stage en masse. On the other hand, progress has slowed to glacial speed owing to continual dips in springtime temperatures.
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Authors
Joe Boggs

Diagnosis: The Fire Not This Time

  While driving through Mahoning County in northeast Ohio this weekend I stopped to take some pictures of what looked to be fireblight on crabapple (Malus). About a foot of the new growth on the crabapple had died back, with browned leaves attached. As noted in previous bygl-alerts, bacterial fireblight caused by Erwinia amylovora is a common problem on crabapples and apples and other genera in the Rosaceae, such as Sorbus (mountainash), Cotoneaster, Pyracantha, and Pyrus (Callery and fruiting pears). As I looked a little closer, though, I...

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Authors
Jim Chatfield

Periodical Cicada "Flagging:" Leaves at Tips of Branches are Turning Brown

Round 1 of the Periodical Cicada:

The emergence of Brood V of the 17-year periodical cicadas (Magicicada spp.) lived up to all expectations within the "cicada zone" in eastern Ohio, parts of West Virginia, and a very small part of southwest Pennsylvania.  Adults emerged in huge numbers, they climbed trees or flew to new trees, males serenaded cicada females with cacophonous songs only appreciated by the females, and mated females inserted eggs into stems.  The cicada adults are now dead and gone.

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Authors
Joe Boggs
Cicadaville chatfield.1@osu.edu Wed, 06/15/2016 - 12:57

If you look at a map of the emergence of Brood V of the 17-year cicadas, Magicicada septendecim (what a great name!), for example at cicadamania.com, it looks like almost the entire eastern half of Ohio was destined for the same experience. As we know by now, though, it is not one size fits all. Go to the OSU Mansfield Campus and the cacophony is big-time, go to Wooster and it is the late spring quietude, until dog-day cicadas, which we hear every year arrive later in the summer. Twenty miles south at Mohican State Park and the male cicadas choir is signing in noticeable numbers....

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Authors
Jim Chatfield