Cicada Killers!!

[ducks4you]

Last night on Illinois Gardener, I caller said that she had these in her yard.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5752266
She wanted to know how to get rid of them. She said that they were digging holes in her yard. The guests told her that you don't WANT to do so.
Just an FYI post.

 

[hoodat]

Cicadas are one of those invisible insects for most of their life. In the larval and nymphal stage they feed on tree roots deep underground and do a lot of damage to trees that we are mostly unaware of. It is only when they climb a tree and start singing their love songs that we notice them.
Cicada killers do us a great service by keeping them in check. Like most digger wasps they have the equipment to sting but almost never do even when molested. They just go about their business and ignore us insignificant humans.

 

[boggybranch]

Ironically, in my part of the deep south, we have always called them locust. Really an interesting bug. Have shelled a "millon" peas and butterbeans on my grandparents front porch while being "buzzed" to death by the dinn.

http://www.cicadas-pictures.com/cicadas_life_cycle.htm

 

[hoodat]

I think most people used to call them locusts. It's only recently that the experts convinced us to use the name cicada so as not to confuse them with the grasshopper locust.