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A Tech Horticulturist is preparing detterents to test on the two-year cicada emergence starting in 2024.
Professor Douglas Airhart provided evaluations and reports for tree damage in the 2008 and 2011 cicada invasions. He said the cicadas damaged millions of dollars in nurseries and crops.
Airhart said that got his interest. He said he maintained this interest with an eye on the 17-year cicada cycle from 2008 and the 13-year cycle from 2011 because those cycles will converge in a two-year emergence.
“So in 2024 and 2025, we’re going to have back-to-back emergences of these periodical cicadas in middle Tennessee,” Airhart said. “And I think that’s going to do more damage because nobody is going to be ready for them.”
Airhart began studies on cicada behavior and prevention in the United States and New Zealand. Over time, Airhart has discovered that cicadas appear to have aversions to specific colors and odors.
“Sweetgum trees they smell,” Airhart said. “If you break the leaf open, they have a pungent odor. And most of those trees suffered minor damage. So we got the idea that we might be able to make an extract of those leaves and apply those as a water-based repellent.”
Airhart said they learn these things too late in the cycle, so they must test them on the subsequent emergence. He plans to test dyes, odors, and even physical barriers.
“We’re going to try netting,” Airhart said. “Whether you can just lay it on a tree and be able to get it off the tree without the tree growing into it during that interval or whether you have to make a framework over the orchard and lay netting over the whole thing.”
Airhart said he observed apple, pear, olive, and other orchards in New Zealand. They used rolled-up netting that they pulled over the trees seasonally to deter birds. He said the holes were small enough to discourage cicadas.
Aihart said deterrent costs had to be considered against possible cicada damage costs when making these decisions.
