Cicadas Are Here! Experts Share How to Protect Your Plants

As the weather warms up, bugs start coming out—it’s a simple and well-known truth. For home gardeners especially, cicadas can be tricky to deal with. Found commonly in the American South, these insects occupy treetops as summer approaches and the air becomes humid.

Although they are mostly harmless, cicadas garner a negative reputation because they produce loud noises through their vibrating membranes which can sound like ticks, buzzes, whines, or screams.

This may lead you to wonder how you can mitigate cicadas’ presence in your own yard. To make it easy, we talked to three experts about how cicadas affect plants, the different ways to protect your garden from them, and which flora can attract—or detract—the insects. Check out their tips, ahead.

The Drawbacks (and Myths) of Cicadas

Before deciding whether to mitigate the presence of cicadas, it’s important to understand their impact and whether it’s actually worth it. As a whole, experts concur that cicadas are not particularly harmful to gardens. 

“Many clients expressed concerns about swarms of cicadas smacking into their foreheads or decimating crops,” Kasey Eaves, owner of Vivant Gardening Services, notes. However, she cautions: “Rest easy, friends—cicadas are not a plague of locusts. They prefer to live a life as far from you and your crop as possible.”

Noise pollution is perhaps the most pervading drawback of cicadas, according to Peter Morris, resident horticulturist at Plant Specialists. Most adults don’t cause serious damage to plants when feeding.

“They do, however, hurt branches and trunks by cutting into the tissue when laying their eggs,” Morris says. “These cuts [can] invite other insects and disease as well.”

Still, this threat is relatively slim when compared to their larger, positive environmental impact. “The younger the plant, the more vulnerable it will be to this process,” Marcus Bridgewater, gardening content creator and author of How to Grow, notes. “Otherwise, they don’t harm humans, and they shouldn’t bother the plants or flowers we grow too much.”

Want more gardening tips? Sign up for our free gardening newsletter for our best-growing tips, troubleshooting hacks, and more!

How to Protect Plants from Cicadas

You may still want to detract cicadas from your space—especially as the influx comes this summer.

“People can do a few things to protect their plants,” Bridgewater says. “These include delaying planting something in the ground until after the cicadas emerge, moving any vulnerable potted plants into a garage, and putting up a barrier (like a mesh net) around any vulnerable plants.”

When it comes to netting plants, the process is quite easy.

“Either wrap the trunk of the tree with netting or burlap to block access for egg laying,” Eaves advises. “In some cases, people choose to net the whole tree. Keep in mind, the net needs to be tightly bound to keep cicadas out and also to avoid any accidental trapping of curious songbirds.”

The only instance in which it’s appropriate to kill off cicadas is if they are proliferating young susceptible trees. Pesticides, however, should be avoided.

“[They] can severely injure important pollinators and can cause quite the upset to the curious pet that will surely try to eat a cicada this summer,” Eaves explains.

Which Plants Attract—and Detract—Cicadas 

Another way to avoid cicadas is to use discretion about which plants you include in your space. According to Bridgewater, adult cicadas are drawn to woody perennials as a food source, and various trees and shrubs for egg-laying. 

“They suck out the sap from the stems and prefer tree sap high in sugar like maples, oaks, willow, and ash,” Morris elaborates. “Your leafy shrubby plants including herbs and veggies should be fine!”

Nymphs, or younger insects, feed on plant roots but usually don’t cause noticeable damage to the plant, Morris adds.

As for what cicadas don’t like? “Needled evergreens, probably because of all the aromatic volatile oils and resins found in those plants,” Morris says. “They also avoid anything that produces gum—like cherry, peach, and plum—as their eggs would get trapped in these substances.”

Cicadas also don’t feel at home in areas with recently disturbed soil, lots of space between trees, or curious predators like city pigeons and dogs, Eaves notes.

Ultimately, though, there aren’t any specific plants that prevent cicadas. After all, “cicadas don’t need ‘preventing,’” Bridgewater concludes. “They are a part of our ecosystems and their emergence is part of a natural cycle.” 

The Benefits of Cicadas

Beyond posing minimal threats to plants, cicadas actually offer many benefits to their ecosystems.

“As an insect that burrows into the soil for its larvae years and then rises from it, cicadas act as soil aerators and improve water filtration in the form of their tunnels,” Eaves says. “Cross that lawn service off the list!”

Also, when cicadas lay eggs in tree tips causing some branches to fall, they are naturally pruning trees.

“Reducing some of the outer canopy creates more airflow and sun access, which in turn reduces fungus and other diseases,” Eaves explains. 

Once mating season ends and cicadas die, their bodies produce incredible amounts of nitrogen that end up feeding the very trees they pruned, Eaves adds. “And when they are above ground, cicadas are an important food source for local wildlife,” Eaves says.