Cicadas covering the Tri-State area

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HUNTINGTON -- Susie Jones recalls having cicadas at her Miller Road residence before, but not this many.

Jones said this week that her yard is covered with dead adult cicadas, living cicadas and the shells that young cicadas develop in and then shed. The 2008 brood of cicadas, Jones said, is the worst she remembers since she moved into her house 43 years ago.

"Thinking back to 17 years ago and another 17 years from then, we don't remember the cicadas problem being this bad. Now they're crawling everywhere," Jones said. "Right now they're covering everything: the walls, steps and plants. They're on everything."

Cicadas, colloquially known as 17-year locusts, have hit the region with a fury as the winged insects begin emerging from the ground to repopulate.

Sherri Hutchinson, of the West Virginia Department of Agriculture, said the area was last inundated with cicadas in 1991. Since that last appearance, the young cicada nymphs have developed underground, emerged and taken over the yards of Cabell and Wayne county residents.

This particular cicada brood affects parts or entire portions of 14 counties in the southwest region of the state. Hutchinson said residents will have to suffer the shrieking cicada song, made by the contraction of the insects' exoskeleton, for about three more weeks.

During this period, adult cicadas emerge from the ground to begin the repopulation process. Hutchinson said female cicadas will cut small, vertical slits in finger-length twigs and begin laying their eggs. Following their emergence from the ground and the repopulation process, the adult cicadas will die.

The cicada nymphs will shed their exoskeletons developed in the twigs, fall, burrow into the ground and begin the 17-year development stage.

Hutchinson said branch damage can occur on smaller trees. After the nymphs fall from the branches, the twigs that were supporting the insects will break and hang. To prevent any damage to young shrubs and trees, Hutchinson recommended covering them with netting or cheesecloth.

Hutchinson said gardeners can also prune the hanging branches in the summer to improve its appearance.

Using insecticides is an expensive and ineffective way to rid lawns of the insects, Hutchinson said. Unfortunately, there's not much people can do to get rid of the insects.

"You just have to put up with them until it's over," Hutchinson said.

Howie McCormick/The Herald-Dispatch

Susie Jones has lived in her Huntington home on Miller Road with her husband, Ervin, for 43 years and says that she has never seen such a heavy volume of cicadas. Burrow holes in the couples' side yard shows where the insects tunneled to the surface, where they are leaving their hard shells all over the landscape.