A Clear and Present Danger – The Spotted Lanternfly
Have you seen a small, quarter to half-inch long insect, black with bright white spots, in your yard? It could be the invasive insect that is plaguing our region, the spotted lanternfly, lycorma delicatura.
Why should we be concerned? As they eat the sap from over 70 different plant species (likely some in your yard), their voracious appetite damages the plant. Their wastes, also known as “honeydew,” can attract other insects, and promote the growth of the sooty mold fungus. All this won’t kill the plants outright, but can cause significant damage and greatly weaken them. It’s not just the plants in your yard, either; these bugs enjoy commercially important ones like grapes, apples, and hardwoods.
While at the moment they are just small and agile (cannot fly, but can leap relatively great distances), in a month or so they change into their adult form. The young ones (nymphs) go through a few different “instars” where they molt as they grow larger. The final instar looks black to mostly red (still with white spots), before changing to the larger (about an inch long) winged adult. Adults may look dull tan or gray with black spots, pretty easy to overlook – but as the wings open you can’t miss the bright red and white underneath.
Originally from China and southern Asia, they first appeared in the US in 2014, in Berks County, Pennsylvania. Attempts at quarantine couldn’t stop the spread, and now they can be found not only in Pennsylvania and New Jersey (first seen in 2018) but most of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast states as well. Personally, I first noticed them in our yard in Ewing last year, and were noticeable throughout Mercer County, too.
As an invasive species, the spotted lanternfly has no natural predators in America. Spiders and praying mantises have been known to eat them on occasion. Some birds will as well; Gray Catbirds and Northern Cardinals are two of the species seen chowing down on the dastardly insects. And if your yard happens to have a koi pond or chickens, they help too!
What can we do? The spotted lanternfly’s favorite plant is (naturally) also an invasive, the “tree of heaven,” ailanthus altissima. Remove those trees from your yard. During the cooler months when the Lanternflies are gone, check your property for their egg masses, which look like a small mud patch. Egg masses are laid not only on trees – any smooth surface will do - so make sure to look under porches or decks, lawn chairs, boats, anything and everything in your yard.
Right now, it’s swatting and stomping season. The fast nymphs are hard to get, but the adults are a little easier. Sometimes they only have a couple of short flights of escape in them, so make sure to take a minute to chase one down.
While the Library doesn’t have any books specifically about this pest, there are plenty of articles available via our catalog:
https://merl.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/mcl/search/results?qu=spotted+lanternfly&te=#
General books about insects can be found in nonfiction under 595.7 or, for a garden-specific angle, there are also some titles under 635, such as Whitney Cranshaw’s Garden Insects of North America.
For more on invasive species in general, two books in the Library for younger readers are Controlling Invasive Species (Global Guardians series) by Liz Chung, and Invasive Species (At Issue series) edited by Noah Berlatsky.
Plenty of pictures can be found by simply performing a google image search for “spotted lanternfly” Get to know the enemy, and get stomping!
Helpful information on the spotted lanternfly can also be found here:
- Rutgers NJ Agriculture Experiment Station
- NJ Department of Agriculture
- https://mtcubacenter.org/the-life-cycle-of-the-spotted-lanternfly/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotted_lanternfly
Comments
Post a Comment