If you’ve ever watched a cicada emergence roll through your neighborhood, you know it’s equal parts fascinating and alarming. Millions of insects. Loud as a lawnmower. And your young apple tree standing right in the middle of it all. The good news? Cicada damage is largely preventable when you know what’s coming and plan ahead. This guide walks you through exactly how to protect backyard plants and trees from cicadas — season by season, step by step.
How Cicadas Actually Damage Plants
Most people assume cicadas eat their way through a garden like caterpillars or aphids. They don’t. Cicadas cause two distinct types of damage, and understanding the difference helps you prioritize where to focus your protection efforts.
Feeding Damage
Adult cicadas feed by inserting a needle-like mouthpart (called a stylet) into stems and branches to sip plant fluids. This feeding is relatively minor for established trees and shrubs. A healthy oak or maple won’t lose sleep over a few feeding wounds. But on young, small-diameter plants, repeated feeding can stress the plant and make it more vulnerable to disease.
Egg-Laying Damage (The Real Threat)
This is where cicadas do serious harm. Female cicadas use a sharp, saw-like ovipositor to slice into pencil-sized branches and deposit eggs in rows. These cuts — called “flagging” sites — can sever the water-conducting tissue inside the branch. Within weeks, those branch tips turn brown and droop, a symptom called flagging. On a mature tree, flagging looks bad but is rarely fatal. On a young tree with a trunk still thinner than your thumb, it can kill the plant outright or permanently deform its structure.
Which Plants Are Most Vulnerable
Not every plant in your yard is at equal risk. Cicadas are highly selective about where they lay eggs. They strongly prefer woody plants with smooth bark and pencil-thin branches — typically between ¼ and ½ inch in diameter. Here’s a quick breakdown of risk levels:
High-Risk Plants
- Young deciduous trees (under 5 years old): Oaks, maples, elms, dogwoods, redbuds, and serviceberries are prime targets when they’re still small.
- Fruit trees: Apple, peach, cherry, pear, and plum trees are among cicadas’ favorite hosts — and egg-laying damage can reduce fruit production for years.
- Ornamental trees: Crape myrtles, Japanese maples, ornamental cherries, and Bradford pears are frequently hit hard.
- Young woody shrubs: Roses, viburnums, lilacs, and blueberry bushes with pencil-thin canes are at real risk.
- Newly planted trees of any species: Any tree planted within the last 2–3 years is in a vulnerable window, regardless of species.
Lower-Risk Plants
- Established trees with thick trunks: Mature oaks, maples, and elms can handle cicada pressure without lasting damage.
- Annuals and perennial flowers: Cicadas ignore soft-stemmed plants. Your hostas, coneflowers, and tomatoes are safe.
- Grasses and ground covers: No meaningful risk from cicadas.
- Evergreen conifers: Pines, spruces, and firs are rarely targeted by periodical cicadas.
Your Seasonal Cicada Defense Checklist
Timing is everything with cicada protection. Here’s how to move through the season strategically.
Step 1: Know Your Cicada Brood and Emergence Window (Winter–Early Spring)
Periodical cicadas (Brood X, Brood XIII, Brood XIX, etc.) emerge on a 13- or 17-year cycle, but annual cicadas show up every summer in most of the country. Before you do anything else, identify which cicadas are active in your region and when they’re expected to emerge. The USDA Forest Service and your local cooperative extension office are reliable sources. Soil temperature is the real trigger — periodical cicadas emerge when soil 8 inches down hits 64°F, typically in late April through early June depending on your location. Mark your calendar 2–3 weeks before that window.
Step 2: Inventory Your Vulnerable Plants (4–6 Weeks Before Emergence)
Walk your yard and make a list of every high-risk plant. Note trunk diameter and overall health. Any tree or shrub with branches in that pencil-width sweet spot goes on your protection list. Healthy, well-established plants are more resilient, so this is also a good time to fertilize and water anything that looks stressed — a strong plant handles damage better.
Step 3: Hold Off on New Tree Plantings (Until After Emergence)
This is one of the most overlooked — and most effective — strategies. If you’re planning to add new trees or shrubs to your landscape, wait until cicadas have finished and left (typically 4–6 weeks after they emerge). Newly transplanted trees are already stressed, and adding cicada pressure on top of transplant shock is a recipe for failure. Delay the planting, and your new trees will thank you for it.
Step 4: Install Physical Barriers (1–2 Weeks Before Emergence)
Netting is your single most effective tool. Fine-mesh insect netting (with openings no larger than ¼ inch) draped over vulnerable trees and shrubs physically blocks females from reaching branches to lay eggs. This approach requires no chemicals and is safe for pollinators, birds, and beneficial insects.
A few netting best practices:
- Use white or light-colored netting so you can easily spot stressed foliage underneath.
- Secure the base of the netting around the trunk or at soil level — don’t leave gaps where cicadas can crawl up.
- Use PVC pipe hoops or bamboo stakes to keep netting off leaf surfaces so it doesn’t trap heat or restrict airflow.
- Remove netting promptly after the emergence ends to allow normal light, pollination, and air circulation to resume.
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Step 5: Skip the Pesticides (During Emergence)
Here’s a counterintuitive piece of advice: insecticides are largely useless against cicadas at scale. With millions emerging at once, any chemical you apply is quickly overwhelmed by new arrivals. Worse, broad-spectrum insecticides will kill predatory insects, birds, and other beneficial wildlife that are actually helping keep your yard in balance. Save your money and use it on netting instead.
Step 6: Monitor and Manage During Emergence
Check your netting daily for tears, gaps, or areas where cicadas have found their way inside. On smaller shrubs like roses or blueberries, hand-picking cicadas off branches in the early morning (when they’re sluggish and cool) can reduce pressure on plants you couldn’t fully net. Knock them into a bucket of soapy water — it’s tedious but effective at small scale.
Step 7: Post-Emergence Recovery Care (Summer)
Once the cicadas are gone, assess the damage and take action. Prune flagged branches back to healthy wood — you’ll see the difference between brown, dead branch tips and living green wood. Make clean cuts just outside the branch collar. Don’t leave stubs. After pruning, give affected trees and shrubs a deep watering and a light application of balanced fertilizer to support new growth.
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Most healthy trees will push new growth within a few weeks. Young trees with significant flagging may need extra attention — consistent watering and mulching through the rest of the season will help them recover before winter.
Cicada Defense at a Glance
| Action | Timing | Priority Level |
|---|---|---|
| Research your local brood emergence date | Winter–early spring | High |
| Inventory and assess vulnerable plants | 4–6 weeks before emergence | High |
| Delay new tree and shrub plantings | Until after emergence ends | High |
| Install fine-mesh netting on high-risk trees | 1–2 weeks before emergence | Critical |
| Hand-pick from unnetted shrubs | During emergence | Medium |
| Check netting for gaps daily | During emergence | High |
| Prune flagged branches | After emergence ends | High |
| Water, fertilize, and mulch affected plants | Post-emergence through summer | Medium |
| Plant new trees and shrubs | 6+ weeks after emergence | High |
Pro Tips for Keeping Your Landscape Looking Great
- Don’t panic over the noise or volume. The sheer number of cicadas is startling, but most of your mature landscape will come through fine. Focus your energy on the plants that genuinely need protection.
- Use cicada bodies as compost. Dead cicadas decompose quickly and return nitrogen to the soil. Let them lie where they fall in garden beds — nature’s free fertilizer.
- Mulch matters. A 2–3 inch layer of mulch around the base of vulnerable trees retains moisture and reduces the stress that makes damage worse. Keep it a few inches away from the trunk.
- Photograph your plants before emergence. A quick phone photo gives you a baseline to compare post-emergence, making it easier to spot and prioritize damage.
- Thin your netting budget wisely. You don’t need to net every tree. Focus on trees under 5 years old, all fruit trees, and any ornamental you’d genuinely miss.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will cicadas kill my established trees?
Almost certainly not. Established trees with trunks thicker than 2–3 inches handle cicada pressure well. Flagging looks alarming, but it’s essentially a natural light pruning for mature trees. Focus your protection efforts on young and newly planted specimens.
What mesh size do I need for cicada netting?
Use netting with openings no larger than ¼ inch (about 6mm). Anything larger and adult cicadas can squeeze through or push past the mesh to reach branches. Garden insect netting or fine bridal tulle from a fabric store both work well.
Can I spray my trees with anything to deter cicadas?
There are no proven spray repellents for cicadas. Kaolin clay (a natural mineral barrier) has been explored as a deterrent, but results are mixed. Physical netting remains the only reliably effective protection method. Skip chemical insecticides — they won’t put a dent in a cicada emergence and carry real environmental costs.
How long does cicada season last?
Most cicada emergences last 4–6 weeks from the time adults first appear above ground. Annual cicadas have a slightly longer window, emerging in waves through midsummer. Once soil temperatures drop back or after roughly 4–6 weeks above ground, adults die off and the pressure on your plants is over.
My young tree lost a lot of branches to flagging — is it going to survive?
Likely yes, if it was healthy going in. Prune out all the flagged wood to healthy growth, water deeply once a week, and apply a balanced slow-release fertilizer. Avoid heavy pruning of healthy wood — you want maximum leaf area to support recovery. Monitor through the rest of the season, and the tree should push new growth before going dormant for winter.
Bottom Line
Cicadas are one of nature’s more dramatic spectacles, and for most of your backyard landscape, they’re more noise than threat. But young trees, newly planted shrubs, and fruit trees genuinely need your help. Get ahead of emergence with a netting plan, hold off on new plantings until the coast is clear, and follow through with solid post-season recovery care. Do those three things and your landscape will come out the other side healthy, intact, and ready to grow.