Cicada killers

[NIGHTRIDER]

One area of my yard is a nesting ground for at least 25 nests this year.The brood chart does not show 2016 as a peak 13 or 17 cycle year.Any one else got large numbers? Just heard my first cicada this morning.

 

[Kirk Freeman]

Cicada killers

No cicadas here, but every year I release praying mantises egg sacks into my yard to cut down the bugs. A mantis will kill everything including cicadas.

 

[PapaScout]

I saw our first cicada yesterday. Hadn't realized this was going to be a year for them.

 

[hoosierdaddy1976]

We've had the regular yearly ones for a week or so, none of the big black ones.

 

[nbunga]

No cicadas here, but every year I release praying mantises egg sacks into my yard to cut down the bugs. A mantis will kill everything including cicadas.

Curious. Where do you get ahold of praying mantis egg sacks?

 

[miguel]

We used to have scores of them, so I started to let the grass grow longer. That seems to have discouraged them.

It seemed they were most active around 4 - 6 pm so I would often set out a sprinkler and start it when I saw the first activity of the day.

 

[K_W]

We have a couple of them at work. I've sat outside on lunch and they've landed on my shoe and I've got one where he'll almost land in my hand.

They look mean, buy they're harmless unless you're a cicada or you step on them barefoot.

 

[bwframe]

Dozens of them come out of my garden and must also come from the surrounding areas. They are intimidating.

 

[spencer rifle]

13 and 17 year cicadas ( usually the all-black ones with red eyes) are not out every year, but there are a number of annual and shorter-period (3, 5, 7, years) that can be found each summer. Cicada killers have no way of knowing when big brood emergences will be. Usually if there are a lot of them it's because hunting was good last year. Males can't sting, but good luck telling them from females. The only people I ever heard were stung by them either stepped on them or purposely antagonized them. They are usually even-tempered - unlike yellow jackets.

 

[bwframe]

On the open ground, they leave a pretty distinctive large, ant hill like, mound around their burrows. Not uncommon to find dead cicada hulls left at the entrance.

 

[amboy49]

Just got to say I love the sound they make. Wouldn't be summer without them. Or doves cooing in the evening.

 

[jd4320t]

Just saw some yesterday and have multiple burrows/nests in my yard. I've only had this house a year and a few months and I definitely don't remember seeing any last year.

 

[pudly]

Curious. Where do you get ahold of praying mantis egg sacks?

Search online. They are easy to find in the spring. You buy egg cases which contain 50-200 eggs (most of which die before maturity). They are indiscriminate eaters, eating pretty much any insect: good, bad, or each other.

 

[spencer rifle]

Usually each other. Of the 100 eggs that might hatch, only about 20-30 will make it past the first few days due to "sibling rivalry" gone amok.