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The original was posted on /r/permaculture by /u/parolang on 2024-04-02 19:39:28.

I haven’t seen this mentioned here, but I guess we are supposed to have trillions of periodical cicadas emerging this spring between late April and early September (?) in the Eastern United States. Wikipedia says that mature trees should be fine, but to wait before planting new trees and to cover immature trees with netting.

The Wikipedia article also mentions that there is reduced tree growth but more moles the year before emergence because of the number of cicada nymphs in their last stage underground eating on tree roots and, in turn, being eaten by moles. It says that the cicada nymphs are basically waiting for a certain soil temperature, so I guess that they might emerge earlier than usual with the climate warming.

So what do you think, are they good guys or bad guys? They are native, but I wonder how well the ecosystem is going to be able to handle them. But they are definitely interesting for having such a long life cycle, especially when we get used to annual or biannual cycles for most things in nature.