First it was a killing freeze. Then seemingly non-stop rainfall. And if that weren’t enough, an invasion of cicadas. It’s been that kind of year at Flamm Orchards, where peach and apple trees grow on about 450 acres in the rolling hills of Union County in Southern Illinois. Row-crop farmers aren’t the only ones battling Mother Nature’s many attacks this year. Peach trees suffered through frigid temperatures and heavy rainfall only to be attacked by millions of cicadas that emerged from a 13-year sleep. “We’ve only got about a 50 percent crop anyway because of winter freeze,” said owner Alan Flamm as he checked on some trees. “Peaches are a dry-weather crop and a hot-weather crop.” The fruit has received neither this season. But, as bad as it was, it could have been worse. Parts of Southern Illinois experienced the phenomenon of millions of cicadas emerging from their 13-year underground hibernation. The noisy insects swarmed to trees, where the females use their sharp tails to scrape the bark off the undersides of branches to deposit eggs. That has taken a toll on many of Flamm’s trees. The mark is a “pretty good size groove” that makes damaged limbs droop. The fruit that survived the cold snap and insect invasion has suffered because of the above-average rainfall that soaked the region. That might affect the flavor of Illinois peaches this year. Source - http://www.freshplaza.com