By Randy Tucker
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Dennis Cook, assistant manager of Delhi Flower and Garden Center in Delhi Township, demonstrates how to wrap a tree with spun cloth for cicada protection. The store has two sizes of the material. Photos by GARY LANDERS/The Cincinnati Enquirer

The looming cicada invasion has already been painful for Greater Cincinnati home and garden centers and landscapers during their prime spring selling season.

Commercial clients and homeowners alike fear cicadas will bring death and destruction to their small trees and bedding plants. So many just aren't buying anything now.

"There are a lot of folks wanting to plant trees and flowers now, but they're afraid the cicadas are going to eat everything in sight like a plague of locusts," said Andy Spitler, manager at Delhi Flower and Garden Center. "People are hesitant to buy and, yes, it has impacted sales."

Spitler wouldn't give specifics on sales figures. But his words were echoed by landscapers and other nursery owners.

Heather Blick, 37, of Covington isn't budging.

SPECIAL SECTION

• Cicada watch 2004

Shopping for house plants this week at Frank's Nursery & Crafts in Florence, she said she has been planning to plant pear trees around her backyard deck for the past couple of years.

But because of the cicadas, "That's one project that will have to wait. It just doesn't make sense to invest the time and money if the bugs are just going to eat the branches," Blick said.

Spitler said most consumers' fears are largely unfounded because adult cicadas do little or no feeding once they emerge. But while eating plants is not a problem, the female's egg-laying procedure can cause some damage, particularly to small trees.

Female cicadas make a small slit on the tips of tree branches and then deposit their eggs in the slits. After a few weeks, the leaves on the tips of the branches die and turn brown, eventually breaking off.

"In most cases, the cicadas aren't going to be fatal to the tree," said Spitler, who said young, soft-barked trees such as ornamental fruit or flowering trees, are the most vulnerable.

About this time every year Penny Maines of Florence starts thinking about spring plantings to add color and texture to the land around her home.

Not this year.

"I work in the yard because it is a good way to relieve stress and relax," Maines said. "But I was here the last time the cicadas came, and they're everywhere. You try to relax with those big bugs flying around your head."

Joe Allen of Allen Brothers Landscaping in Alexandria, said the cicadas have probably pushed back much of his tree business.

"A lot of my customers are holding off until fall to plant trees," he said.

Allen said his customers who already have small trees in the ground are asking about ways to protect them. He recommends cheesecloth or small wire mesh to stop the cicadas from getting at small trees and laying eggs.

But covering plants and small trees isn't necessary, he said.

"If you've got a $500 Japanese maple in your backyard, you might want to go with the cheese cloth or netting," Allen said. "Otherwise, just go with it."

That's Rick O'Daniel's philosophy.

The part owner of Florence Nursery & Floral Shop said he has planted between 7,000 and 8,000 trees on 150 acres in Boone County. Many of the trees are at the seedling stage, which would make them vulnerable to the cicada intrusion.

"I can't cover all of them, but I'm not worried about losing trees," O'Daniel said. "I didn't lose any when they came 17 years ago, and I don't expect to lose any this year."

E-mail rtucker@enquirer.com