The cicadas are coming
What should your hardware customers do about the cicada onslaught?
Well, not much really.
The loud, bug-eyed bugs are coming. Two groups of them - simultaneously. And they are, as most people know already, absolutely and completely harmless to people.
Rescue pest control, a Sterling International company, writes on its website: “Lucky citizens in certain parts of the midwest and southeastern U.S. will experience a once-in-a-lifetime event – the dual emergence of cicada broods XIII and XIX.”
According to the website phys.org, entomologists are expecting a rare event that is expected to happen across 15 or so states in the midwest and southeast. Two broods – meaning generations – of cicadas will rise up at the same time. But they say there is nothing about them people should be frightened of.
Cicadas don’t bite or sting and aren’t dangerous to humans, writes Rescue, but they can cause damage to young trees and other nursery plants.
If a hardware store finds itself in an area that may be overwhelmed by cicadas this year, Rescue provided this advice managers can use, “the best way to protect any sensitive plants is to cover them with bird netting or cheesecloth.”
While neither are specifically designed or tested for cicadas, Rescue said its own products, “Wasp TrapStik or Carpenter Bee TrapStik will catch cicadas if you’re looking for a trap.”
This editor made some phone calls to a few hardware stores in Illinois – one of the potential target states for “cicada-geddon” as it’s been humorously referred to – to get their take on the topic.
One hardware store manager in downstate Illinois said he was unaware of the cicadas and also said not one customer had asked anything about it.
At Clark-Devon Hardware in Chicago, the CEO said that no customer had made inquiries and added that from what he knows, cicadas are harmless and are probably good for the environment.
They are due to emerge anytime now, starting in early May or as late as June.
They will create a big song in the trees. They will last a few weeks. Don’t get too bugged.
