JACKSONVILLE, Ill. (WAND) — Spring is here and you’re getting ready to plant your garden with some vegetables and fruits. But should you proceed, given the massive invasion of cicadas on the way in May?
We talked with Ken Johnson at the Illinois Extension in Jacksonville. Johnson is a horticulture educator and has knowledge of the cicada diet.
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Johnson said that your garden veggies are safe.
“They’re going to be feeding primarily on woody plant material and laying their eggs in trees,” Johnson stated. “So, your herbaceous stuff, your tomatoes, cucumbers all of that, they’ll leave them alone.”
Johnson tells WAND News mature trees will have no problem with cicadas. However, he says younger or newly planted trees should be covered with netting to keep the bugs away.
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