Posted By: JillMarie
Cicadas - 06/21/11 07:45 AM
With cicadas being around now, I felt this was a good time to comment on whether or not they are safe to feed to our beloved glider friends.
Cicadas themselves are not toxic however please think twice before giving them to your glider.
I know someone who is an entomologist and this is what he told me in 2 emails:
"I wouldn't worry about parasites, but they are a *potential* source for pesticide/herbicide bioaccumulation due to their long life span. Even freshly emerged, the insect has been feeding on tree sap for a minimum of 4 years (depending on species). I'm sure the gliders would love them (even dogs love eating cicadas), and like most insects they most likely pose no risk if they're healthy, but probably not worth the worry in my opinion."
and then:
"Hi Jill Marie, feel free to pass this on if you want. The basics of the cicada life cycle is the adult female lays eggs in young branch shoots on suitable trees. The nymphs hatch, drop to the ground and burrow where they live, feeding on tree sap sucked from the tree roots for at least four years for the "shortest" lived of the cicadas, and as long as 17 years for the longest lived of the cicada species. The adults don't live long (great pics by the way :)), only a month or so, but their nymphs are there feeding on tree sap for years. Trees can absorb many pesticides. There are even pesticides that intentionally designed to be taken up by trees for sap sucking pests (e.g. woolly adelgid), and with the nymphs living for so long, they are good candidates for accumulating pesticides they are resistant to but sugar gliders may or may not be.
As easy as it is to get captive reared feeders, as yummy as I'm sure they are for a glider, it's just more worry than I'd be willing to take on."
I had also taken this picture to share. Personally I think they are pretty.
Cicadas themselves are not toxic however please think twice before giving them to your glider.
I know someone who is an entomologist and this is what he told me in 2 emails:
"I wouldn't worry about parasites, but they are a *potential* source for pesticide/herbicide bioaccumulation due to their long life span. Even freshly emerged, the insect has been feeding on tree sap for a minimum of 4 years (depending on species). I'm sure the gliders would love them (even dogs love eating cicadas), and like most insects they most likely pose no risk if they're healthy, but probably not worth the worry in my opinion."
and then:
"Hi Jill Marie, feel free to pass this on if you want. The basics of the cicada life cycle is the adult female lays eggs in young branch shoots on suitable trees. The nymphs hatch, drop to the ground and burrow where they live, feeding on tree sap sucked from the tree roots for at least four years for the "shortest" lived of the cicadas, and as long as 17 years for the longest lived of the cicada species. The adults don't live long (great pics by the way :)), only a month or so, but their nymphs are there feeding on tree sap for years. Trees can absorb many pesticides. There are even pesticides that intentionally designed to be taken up by trees for sap sucking pests (e.g. woolly adelgid), and with the nymphs living for so long, they are good candidates for accumulating pesticides they are resistant to but sugar gliders may or may not be.
As easy as it is to get captive reared feeders, as yummy as I'm sure they are for a glider, it's just more worry than I'd be willing to take on."
I had also taken this picture to share. Personally I think they are pretty.