Bonsai tree

This may well qualify as the most useless post I offer this year… because it will have relevance only every decade or so. Seventeen years, in some cases… I’m talking about cicadas. Recently I was in the Midwest and saw this cicada damage on a client’s beech. The cicada will lay eggs in the branches of a tree, leaving a strange stitching pattern. The larvae end up in the soil, where they will eat the tree roots. You may kill them with an insecticide drench. Mark your calendars for the cicada boom year in your area, and keep an eye out for this damage: