Craft: Cicada Origami
Cicada origami found in the Tudor Place garden. Photo credit: Tudor Place Historic House & Garden.
This month, Washington, DC is experiencing the emergence of a group of cicadas called Brood X. You can learn more about cicadas and Brood X by checking out the Education at Home Activity on using Cicada Safari to map the cicadas you see.
If you visit Tudor Place in May, you will see cicadas in the garden. Don’t be worried! They might be loud, but cicadas don’t bite or sting humans.
They also are not hurting the plants. Cicadas don’t eat leaves or flowers. Instead, they drink the sap from tree roots and make tiny cuts in branches where they lay their eggs. Young trees might be harmed if too many cicadas try to lay eggs in them, so the Tudor Place garden staff have wrapped up small trees in bug netting to keep them safe.
Tudor Place is working hard to keep the cicadas out of the historic house, but here is one cicada you can take home. Watch the video below to create your own origami cicada.
This activity is the second of two in a cicada activity series.
