In D.C. Area, It's the Day Of the Cicada (washingtonpost.com): "As it was then, so it will be in 2004: The females will begin to deposit their eggs -- each female cicada carries an estimated 400 to 600 -- after scratching incisions into pencil-thin tree branches. (This activity sometimes results in damage to young trees, and gardeners may want to protect trees by wrapping them in fine netting.) "