Cicadas! April 26, 2007 Greetings! This is the big year! The cicadas are coming! It's hard to believe these critters spend 17 years under ground, come out for a couple weeks and then are gone for another 17 years. Pretty cool. From a landscape perspective, it's not so cool though. These guys can do some damage. Most of the damage, however, is in the client management department. It is unlikely that any permanent damage will occur to healthy plants, which is good. But the phone calls those of us in the industry will be fielding this year will be a distraction at best. The press isn't helping either, with alarmist reports telling people not to plant this year, to put netting over all young plants and more. I asked my friends at The Care of Trees for their thoughts on the issue, and Dr. Rex Bastian provided a really useful brochure. You can grab a pdf of it right here. Video, Pictures, Recipes!  You gotta check this out from Indiana University. There are some cool photos and even some time lapse videos of cicadas emerging from the ground and from their shells. Click here. My memories of previous cicada invasions are pretty vivid. Some areas have few to none, and others have piles of them. I also have images in my mind of dogs going crazy for them. By that I mean EATING them. They are reportedly very tasty, even to humans. I'll have to accept the word of others for that though. For those of you who are more adventurous than I, you might enjoy these sites:
Landscapers' Challenge  Two years ago I was included in the taping of an episode of HGTV's Landscapers' Challenge. It was an interesting experience for sure. Well, it's finally going to air! Watch your local listings, or click here for info. As of now it's scheduled for May 3 at 9:30 p.m. Eastern and Pacific/ 8:30 Central. It doesn't mention Mountain time, but I'm sure you can figure it out. Lastly, I promised a summary of our survey. That has not been forgotten, but spring has gotten in the way! Watch for it soon. Sincerely,  Tim Thoelecke American Academy of Landscape Design email: info@aaldweb.com phone: 847-657-7900 |
