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Every year, green cicadas pop up in late spring and early summer and start “singing.” Of course, to us, it sounds a whole lot more like screaming! The shed skins of cicadas (which we always thought look a little like cicada ghosts) will litter the sides of houses and trunks of trees. And then, just as suddenly as the screaming started, it’ll stop, and the cicadas will be gone until next spring. But this year, things are going to be a little different, because 2021 marks the return of Brood X. The name sounds a bit intimidating, but it’s really just the Roman Numeral for 10. Brood X is the 10th generation of a line of 17-year periodical cicadas. What does that mean? To understand, we’ll have to take a look at the life cycle of cicadas. The Life Cycle of CicadasAdult cicadas vibrate their tymbal organs, which are membranes on both sides of their abdomen, in order to attract other cicadas in the area. This vibration creates the roar we associate with cicada breeding season, and can easily approach 100 decibels. That’s about as much sound as a leaf blower or chain saw! Once enough cicadas have gathered together, males will begin courting females with courtship calls. Females express their return interest by an audible flick of their wings, adding even more noise to the chorus. After mating, the female cicada will find a small, thin branch or twig to lay her eggs. Using a rigid appendage on her abdomen, the cicada gouges a line into the wood where she then deposits batches of 20 to 30 eggs. The average female can lay around 600 eggs, which means she can do this upwards of 30 times! Fertilized eggs will develop in their nests for about 6 to 10 weeks before hatching. You’re probably familiar with the idea that many bug species start their lives out as larvae. Cicadas, on the other hand, have what’s called a gradual metamorphosis. So, instead of larvae, they’re called nymphs. Freshly-emerged cicada nymphs drop to the ground immediately after vacating their eggs, and then burrow into the ground within a few minutes. They’ll settle about a foot or so beneath the surface and attach themselves quickly to a food source. Nymphs usually prefer the small roots of trees, but are also known to attack the roots of grasses and other herbaceous plants as well. Using their sucking mouth, they pierce the root and draw out xylem fluid (water and nutrients transported between plant cells). Cicada nymphs will shed their skin a few times underground, and then once more above ground before their exoskeleton hardens and they are officially adults, where they repeat the cycle over again. What makes Brood X different?The cicadas we see annually are green in color, and relatively reasonable in number. You see them around, and they sure make a lot of noise, but they aren’t exactly overwhelming. Brood X, on the other hand, is made up of periodical cicadas. They are brown to black in color, with yellowish wings. “Periodical” is used to describe species that go dormant between generations. In the case of cicadas, there are two types: 13-year periodical and 17-year periodical. The nymphs of periodical cicada species hide underground for 13 or 17 years at a time before re-emerging as adults to breed. Brood X is the newest generation of 17-year periodical cicadas. The parents of this generation mated and laid their eggs in 2004. In the last 17 years, the nymphs have been feeding and shedding about a foot underground. This May, over a trillion Brood X nymphs are expected to pop out of the ground and shed their skin one final time before spreading their wings and beginning their adult lives. The Danger to Your TreesWith trillions of cicadas emerging, at least half of them female, and each female capable of filling over 30 nests… that’s a lot of gouges in a lot of trees. The cuts needed for a cicada to lay her eggs are pretty shallow and not very long, but they can still do some damage. There’s also concern that the open wounds may allow pests a to get a foothold into your tree, or bacteria an entry point to infect. As cicadas prefer to lay their eggs in small, thin branches, they usually pick young twigs near the end of their main branch. Though the injury isn’t that big, it’s more than enough to kill off the twig. Older, well-established trees can handle the death of some twigs just fine. The dead ends usually drop off in the weeks following the cicada laying her eggs. In some cases, the twigs recover, though the location of the nest will probably be structurally weaker than the rest of the branch. Younger and smaller trees, on the other hand, may be in genuine danger from Brood X. Plant nurseries, orchards, strawberry and blueberry farms, and even landscaping trees planted in parking lots and along city streets are all likely to be targeted by this new generation. What can you do?So how can you protect your trees from the onslaught of egg-laying cicadas? The popular answer is to spray a lot of pesticide. Unfortunately, most pesticides will do nothing to discourage female cicadas from a potential nesting site. Any pesticide strong enough to deter them will likely end up hurting your tree in the process. The tried-and-true solution for protecting young trees from cicadas is mesh barriers. 1.0-centimeter mesh, to be exact. Studies have shown that trees protected with 2.5-cm mesh were just as damaged as trees not protected at all. Basically, that means you need pretty tightly-woven mesh to keep cicadas out. If the gaps between threads are more than a single centimeter, the pesky bugs will worm their way in and go about their egg-laying like normal. Looking for more information? Check out the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences article. AuthorEmily Casuccio is sister and sister-in-law to Rebekah and Scott Rushing, and has over half a decade of experience in copywriting, copyediting, proofreading, and developmental storyboarding. She's worked with both published and undiscovered authors on both fiction and nonfiction, and takes pride in supporting local businesses. Her passion lies in the written word and helping authors of all capacities realize their dreams and achieve their fullest potential. To learn more about her, read samples of her work, or contact her, visit her online portfolio.
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Power lines are one of those things you probably only think about when they aren’t working. If a storm knocks them out, you lose power to your home. But at Classic City Arborists, we have to think about power lines a lot. In fact, they’re one of the first things we note when assessing a potential customer’s tree work. What do we look for?It can be hard to judge whether or not a power line close to your home will be a problem when it comes to the tree work you want done.  Scott Rushing, our Certified Arborist, uses his many years of hands-on experience and professional training to decide whether or not the lines need to be dropped before any work can be done. But essentially, we’re looking to see if there are power lines too close to the tree(s) in question, or even just too close to the work site where we’ll be operating some heavy machinery. What does “dropping” power lines mean?If the power lines on or near your property end up being too close to the job site for us to work around them, then your estimate will have a note that the “power lines need to be dropped.” Basically, this means the lines have to be detached from at least one pole so they aren’t running live power. Usually, they’re laid flat on the ground that they’d normally hang above, so they’re easy to reattach when the time comes. How do I get power lines dropped?It’s actually pretty easy to get your power lines dropped. In most cases, we will contact your power provider to set everything up. We will coordinate the specific work date with you and your provider a few weeks prior. Will I lose power?Unfortunately, yes. Depending on the scope of the tree work you want done, you may be without power for just an hour or two, or maybe for the whole day. Once the lines are dropped and we can begin working, we always start with the tree(s) and work that directly interferes with the power lines. As soon as we are no longer working around the power lines, we will call the power company to have them restore the lines. Can’t you just work around them?We know that having the power to your home cut for even a short period of time can be super inconvenient, even with plenty of time to prepare. When assessing any job site, Scott walks around and even measures distances to see whether or not working around power lines is an option. But it’s important to realize how dangerous working too close to power lines can be, for us and for you. The Dangers of Tree Work around Power LinesAccording to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), contact with electricity is the leading cause of death for tree care workers. Trees are excellent conductors, which means electricity travels through them easily. This means that if we put a metal saw against a limb of a tree that’s touching a power line, electricity will run from the line, through the tree, into the metal saw, and then into the worker! This may not seem like a big deal (especially if you’ve ever been zapped by an electric fence), but power lines pack some heavy firepower. Coming into contact with one, even indirectly like we just described, can be fatal. Even if you don’t die by electrocution, that amount of electricity wreaks havoc on the human body. Depending on circumstances, it may even be enough for ignition (which means you catch on fire). Of course, we take a range of safety precautions to protect our workers. The first measure we take to protect against power line accidents is to have lines dropped when working close to them. Our employees also wear proper gloves and shoes at all times, and maintain the regulation distance from overhead lines. We maintain Workers Comp to ensure our employees (and customers) are protected in the event of an accident. By dropping power lines before completing your tree work, we’re also keeping you safe as well. Like we said, trees are excellent conductors of electricity. If a limb comes into contact with an active power line, electricity can travel through it and into the ground, where it disperses in all directions. This surge can electrocute you, your dog, your children, passersby, and can even overload the circuits in your home (like if it got struck by lightning).  Basically, messing with power lines is a huge risk for everyone involved! Having them dropped prior to our work protects both you and us from injury and even death. Have other questions? Check out our FAQs for more information! For a free estimate, feel free to give us a call or fill out our online form. AuthorEmily Casuccio is sister and sister-in-law to Rebekah and Scott Rushing, and has over half a decade of experience in copywriting, copyediting, proofreading, and developmental storyboarding. She's worked with both published and undiscovered authors on both fiction and nonfiction, and takes pride in supporting local businesses. Her passion lies in the written word and helping authors of all capacities realize their dreams and achieve their fullest potential. To learn more about her, read samples of her work, or contact her, visit her online portfolio. Quercus laevis, more commonly known as the turkey oak, is a short, sometimes shrub-like tree native to the southeastern United States. We call it the turkey oak (or sometimes the turkey-foot oak) because its leaves have three distinct lobes, and they look a whole lot like turkey feet. The hardy species is also sometimes called the scrub oak, because it grows best in scrub land. Where other trees might wither and die in sandy, low-moisture soil, turkey oaks thrive. In fact, the turkey oak’s native habitat is the dry, sandy, well-drained soils found in places like the Carolina bay rims, old beach sand dunes, or even coastal plain ridges with quartzite and acidic rock types. Basically, this tree really likes soil that’s inhospitable to most other tree species! Did You Know?Quercus laevis is often specified as the American turkey oak, to differentiate it from the European Quercus cerris. Where our turkey oak is native to the United States, the European turkey oak is an invasive species. As it prefers well-drained soil, the turkey oak is pretty drought resistant, making it a great choice for areas with low annual rainfall. These trees can also stand against heavy wind and inclement weather without uprooting, as their shorter stature protects them against the worst of the elements. This overall hardiness makes them a popular choice to prevent erosion in coastal areas, but it also means they are often seen as weeds by homeowners. In the wild, turkey oaks often make up the understory of long-leaf pine forests. They have lower sunlight requirements, so they don’t mind the shade. On average, the turkey oak will reach 26 to 33 feet high, putting it squarely on the small side of the tree size spectrum. With a little pruning, you can even grow this species like a shrub! Its branches spread out wide, giving the tree a shorter, stouter appearance. Unlike other oak species, the turkey oak has an irregularly-shaped crown. The bark of the turkey oak starts out smooth and dark brown (or even blackish) in color. As the tree ages, this bark lightens to a warm reddish-gray and breaks into deeply furrowed ridges. The inner bark is usually a warm red color throughout the tree’s lifetime. As we mentioned, the turkey oak gets its name from its turkey-foot-shaped leaves. While the leaves are young, they do often resemble turkey feet, with 3 deeply divided lobes. As they grow, however, the leaves tend to average between 5 and 7 lobes. Each individual lobe is tipped with a few bristle teeth, but they are otherwise pretty smooth and hairless. Leaves average between 3 and 7 inches long. Sometimes longer! An interesting feature that makes turkey oak leaves unique is their growth pattern. Most trees hold their leaves horizontally, so they are displaying as much leaf surface as possible for photosynthesis. Turkey oaks, on the other hand, hold their leaves vertically. This protects the leaves against the hottest hours of the sun, so they don’t burn, and lets them photosynthesize best in the morning and evening, when the sun is lower in the sky. The turkey oak is a deciduous tree, which means it sheds its leaves annually. Usually, deciduous trees offer a brilliant display of fall colors before their leaves dry out, turn brown, and fall to the ground. Turkey oak leaves do change color in the fall, usually to yellow or orange-red. But they don't try out as quickly as other oak species. In fact, turkey oaks will hold onto their beautiful burnt-gold leaves well into the winter! In the spring, turkey oaks grow acorns just like any other oak tree. They take the average 18 months to mature before they can start sprouting, and average less than an inch long. Turkey oak acorns are an important source of food for a variety of wildlife, including the black bear, white-tailed deer, and of course, the wild turkey. Though you might expect the flowers of the turkey oak to also bloom in the spring, the male catkins actually don’t start appearing until around November. They produce high amounts of pollen, and may be responsible for your winter allergies! Though it deviates from the typical oak characteristics in many ways, the turkey oak is still an oak tree. That means it’s still susceptible to diseases like chestnut blight, shoestring root rot, oak leaf blister, cankers, and even mildew. If you suspect that your turkey oak is showing signs of decay, don’t hesitate to give us a call! AuthorEmily Casuccio is sister and sister-in-law to Rebekah and Scott Rushing, and has over half a decade of experience in copywriting, copyediting, proofreading, and developmental storyboarding. She's worked with both published and undiscovered authors on both fiction and nonfiction, and takes pride in supporting local businesses. Her passion lies in the written word and helping authors of all capacities realize their dreams and achieve their fullest potential. To learn more about her, read samples of her work, or contact her, visit her online portfolio. Classic City Arborists is a family-owned business started right here in our very own Athens, Georgia. We’re proud to bleed red and black (go Dawgs!), and our Athens heritage is just as much a part of our company as our honest work ethic and loyal customers. As you probably know, Athens is an old town with lots of rich history. This city is made of relics from years past that stand alive and well today, like the Arch on UGA campus and most of downtown. But there’s some history of Athens that isn’t locked away in buildings or structures. Some of our city’s legacy lives in its trees. Tree That Owns ItselfIf you’ve lived in Athens for any length of time, you’ve probably heard of the Tree That Owns Itself. This once-massive white oak stood on the corner of Dearing Street and South Finley Street. A faded plaque at its base explained that this tree was deeded itself by former owner, Colonel William H. Jackson. According to legend (and a newspaper article or two), Col. Jackson grew up by this tree, and loved it dearly. So much so, in fact, that in his will, that left the tree and all land 8 feet in all directions to the tree itself. At the time, this presented something of a legal conundrum. How can a tree own itself? But the City of Athens, after some time, officially recognized the tree’s right. Unfortunately, the Tree That Owns Itself was damaged during an ice storm in 1907. After many years of erosion near its base, root rot, and other conditions, the 100-foot-tall oak fell to the ground. It was replaced in 1964 by one of its seedlings that had been cultivated by Captain Jack Watson. Thus, the Son of the Tree That Owns Itself legally inherited itself and all land 8 feet in every direction from its base. Spec Towns OakThe Spec Towns Oak is named after Olympic track and field star Spec Towns. After winning a gold medal in the high hurdles, Towns’ athletic director Herman Stegeman presented him with an oak from the Black Forest in Berlin. This oak was planted behind the North Stands of Sanford Stadium and stood for just over 30 years. However, in 1967, the stadium was expanded. The Spec Towns Oak was moved elsewhere on campus, but the team in charge failed to dig a hole large enough for the tree’s root system. To solve this, they cut back the roots until everything fit. Unfortunately, this led to the tree’s death not long after. The late Dean of Men, Mr. William Tate, got into contact with Berlin and managed to have a replacement tree from the Black Forest brought to campus. That tree also died, for unknown reasons (usually attributed to problems surviving the international trip). But as luck would have it, an acorn of this replacement tree was saved, and planted successfully. So now, the Son of the Half-Brother of the Specs Town Oak survives on the south end of the Spec Towns Track. The Pecan Tree Courtyard at the Georgia Center for Continuing EducationYou might not find this one on a list of historic landmarks for our city, but we certainly think it’s worth a visit. The Georgia Center for Continuing Education features a wildly popular restaurant with courtyard seating centered around a large pecan tree. Pecan trees are known for their stunning foliage displays (and of course, their delicious pecans), and many believe this tree and the view it provides has contributed to the restaurant’s success over the years. The Tree RoomThe Tree Room, located at 159 Oneta Street, is known for the large mulberry tree growing inside it. In the 1960s, some kind of fire or other incident left most of the space exposed to nature, with much of the inside charred or burned. For many decades, it stood empty, and it was during this period that the mulberry tree began to grow. Over time, the building was used for a variety of purposes: a squat house for travelers, a dumping ground for a neighboring concrete plant, and even a playground for local children. Now, the building has been transformed into an event space owned by Athenians Ashely and Doug Booher, who discovered the building and tree as children and grew to love it. Most of the original architecture still stands, with accommodations made in the name of safety and design. The name “the Tree Room” comes from the toddler of one of the Booher’s friends, and is proudly used by the public to refer to this stunning natural display. UGA ArboretumIf you’re looking for more beautiful trees to look at, then you should definitely pay a visit to the University of Georgia’s Arboretum. Where is the Arboretum, you ask? Across the entire campus! The founders of UGA didn’t want to dedicated any one location as an arboretum, because they didn’t want it to be inaccessible to anyone in town. Instead, they treated the entire campus as an arboretum, planting a wild range of species all over. AuthorEmily Casuccio is sister and sister-in-law to Rebekah and Scott Rushing, and has over half a decade of experience in copywriting, copyediting, proofreading, and developmental storyboarding. She's worked with both published and undiscovered authors on both fiction and nonfiction, and takes pride in supporting local businesses. Her passion lies in the written word and helping authors of all capacities realize their dreams and achieve their fullest potential. To learn more about her, read samples of her work, or contact her, visit her online portfolio. |
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23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters,
24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.
Colossians 3:23-24
24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.
Colossians 3:23-24