Yesterday I had the pleasure of seeing a new insect. A huge wasp was
hovering
near a mound of gravel and dirt. I would find out it is a cicada wasp.
My they
are huge. And earlier this summer I saw huge mosquitoes to find out they
are
psorophora ciliata. Now I am seeing a huge wasp. And my apricot trees
seem to have a lot of cicadas. I notice some branches falling off,
perhaps cicada damage.

And I wonder about my cherry trees in that their leaves are okay but
curling. It has been dry but I wonder if their curling is caused by a
huge cicada population
underground feeding on the roots and sap? I wonder if cicadas are
attracted to
fruit tree orchards?

I do not want to spray insecticide. So I wonder how I can increase the
wasp population. Perhaps have a dirt mound every summer?

I wonder if cicadas can be a big problem to where they kill and destroy
fruit trees?

What birds eat cicadas?

And I think cicadas are one of the ugliest insects.

I wonder if anyone has invented some natural physical means of luring
cicadas
into a death trap.

Archimedes Plutonium,
whole entire Universe is just one big atom where dots
of the electron-dot-cloud are galaxies

"Archimedes Plutonium" wrote in message
...
Yesterday I had the pleasure of seeing a new insect. A huge wasp was
hovering
near a mound of gravel and dirt. I would find out it is a cicada wasp.
My they
are huge. And earlier this summer I saw huge mosquitoes to find out they
are
psorophora ciliata. Now I am seeing a huge wasp. And my apricot trees
seem to have a lot of cicadas. I notice some branches falling off,
perhaps cicada damage.

And I wonder about my cherry trees in that their leaves are okay but
curling. It has been dry but I wonder if their curling is caused by a
huge cicada population
underground feeding on the roots and sap? I wonder if cicadas are
attracted to
fruit tree orchards?

I do not want to spray insecticide. So I wonder how I can increase the
wasp population. Perhaps have a dirt mound every summer?

I wonder if cicadas can be a big problem to where they kill and destroy
fruit trees?

What birds eat cicadas?

And I think cicadas are one of the ugliest insects.

I wonder if anyone has invented some natural physical means of luring
cicadas
into a death trap.

Dry bare earth is one of the cicada wasps favorite site in which to burrow.
My deck is only about a foot above ground and dry, hot, dense bare earth
lies underneath and the cicada killers L-O-V-E it. Over the last three
years, they've come back annually for at least a six week stay. They look
intimidating but never bother us. They're even kind of fun to watch - they
almost seem to have personalities and are very attentive.

CK
Austin, TX

In article jeK0b.9998$Ih1.3697785
@newssrv26.news.prodigy.com,
says...
Dry bare earth is one of the cicada wasps favorite site in which to burrow.
My deck is only about a foot above ground and dry, hot, dense bare earth
lies underneath and the cicada killers L-O-V-E it. Over the last three
years, they've come back annually for at least a six week stay.

It doesn't have to be bare, but loose seems to be the
key.
--

http://home.comcast.net/~larflu/owl1.jpg

Lar. (to e-mail, get rid of the BUGS!!

In article ,
says...
I do not want to spray insecticide. So I wonder how I can increase the
wasp population. Perhaps have a dirt mound every summer?

They seem to find sandy areas such as when a new
sidewalk or patio is put in. Don't kill them and there
will be more showing up each year. I think the shorter
list of birds would be what birds don't eat them.



--

http://home.comcast.net/~larflu/owl1.jpg

Lar. (to e-mail, get rid of the BUGS!!

charliekilo wrote:


Dry bare earth is one of the cicada wasps favorite site in which to burrow.
My deck is only about a foot above ground and dry, hot, dense bare earth
lies underneath and the cicada killers L-O-V-E it. Over the last three
years, they've come back annually for at least a six week stay. They look
intimidating but never bother us. They're even kind of fun to watch - they
almost seem to have personalities and are very attentive.

CK
Austin, TX

Thanks for sharing that experience. When I buy a new lot of land to landscape
I generally have some truckloads of fill dirt which is called a road mix for
it is
about 50% dirt and 50% gravel. I am building a concrete block garage and had
a load of this for backfill dumped into a big mound. And while shoveling some
of this backfill I ran into this huge wasp. It is tough shovelling because the
clay and gravel but the wasp seems to like that composition.

I like to use that roadmix as patches in the lawn to make the mowing easier.

And decided that under the garage eave is a dry spot that gets little rain and
will
put a mound of roadmix in order to get a nice large population of these wasps
because my fruit trees have too many cicadas.

I wonder if some sort of arrangement of concrete block would entice these
wasps
as a home. Where you put a row of block in line with the apricot trees and
fill the block holes with a gravel, sand, clay mix. I suppose these wasps do
not like it when ants are nearby. And they seem to like a sunny spot.

Archimedes Plutonium,
whole entire Universe is just one big atom where dots
of the electron-dot-cloud are galaxies

On Wed, 20 Aug 2003, Archimedes Plutonium wrote:
|I wonder if cicadas can be a big problem to where they kill and destroy
|fruit trees?
|
|What birds eat cicadas?

Didn't American Indians eat cicadas? They are generally a harmless
insect, aren't they?

|And I think cicadas are one of the ugliest insects.

Why?

|I wonder if anyone has invented some natural physical means of luring
|cicadas into a death trap.

What about harvesting them and turning them into a marketable organic
food snack? You could deep fat fry them, and then shake them in a
box of powdered cheese. Maybe sell them at a movie theater where
people don't look too closely at the stuff you put in a popcorn bag?