Spotted Lantern Fly

[NCL4701]

I’m sure some of you in Pennsylvania and some other northeastern U.S. areas have been dealing with these for several years. I’ve seen various reports from various state ag agencies on how impactful they are. Seems like the initial reports were quite concerning with more recent longer term studies being much less dire.

The control measures I’ve seen appear to be focused on controlling them on one to four trees in a residential yard, which is simply inapplicable to my situation.

Yes, I’m reporting to NC Ag via their reporting website, but haven’t heard back from them and don’t know if I will as it appears they already know about a small population in our area.

I’ll also call our County Forester when we get back in town later this week since we’re in the forestry program.

While I’m waiting to hear from local gov’t expert types, just wondering from those with experience if these things are an apocalyptic plague, a minor irritant, or something in between.

And yes, I’m sure what it was. Not like there’s anything similar in this area. But here’s a pic anyway.

 

[ZTMAN]

We had them in south central Pa last year. They seem to like maple trees. We had a bunch of them on our trees, but I see no long term damage.
Some people put lantern fly sticky tape around their tree trunks, but when birds got caught in the tape, some people abandoned the use.
IMO, they were just annoying, and I do not see any damage they caused.

 

[WI_Hedgehog]

Very pretty. However it is another invasive species from Asia.

 

[chim]

Huge fuss here in SE PA 3 or 4 years ago. I was designated the Spotted Lantern Fly person at our company. The Commonwealth had all sorts of hoops we were supposed to jump through. They included inspecting all trucks, pallets, loads of any kind before any trips. Vehicles had to have windows closed while parked. When I told our president what was expected ( we had around 100 vehicles) he said f***it.

A big part of the "control" was to squash the SLF's when you saw them. Ridiculous stuff. Haven't seen any for a year or two.

 

[NCL4701]

Huge fuss here in SE PA 3 or 4 years ago. I was designated the Spotted Lantern Fly person at our company. The Commonwealth had all sorts of hoops we were supposed to jump through. They included inspecting all trucks, pallets, loads of any kind before any trips. Vehicles had to have windows closed while parked. When I told our president what was expected ( we had around 100 vehicles) he said f***it.

A big part of the "control" was to squash the SLF's when you saw them. Ridiculous stuff. Haven't seen any for a year or two.

Thanks.

I read some about that. Businesses in the quarantine area getting SLF licenses, a pdf checklist for residents to do stuff like check vehicle wheel wells and physically crush any eggs, nymphs, or adults before leaving the quarantined counties. Thought WTF and briefly considered deleting photos and feeding the one specimen I have to our cat (he likes the occasional bug).

Most recent study I saw in my brief research on my phone before my wife woke up was a study from Penn State saying it’s problematic for grape vines, ailanthus trees, and black walnut saplings under 2 years old. If that’s true, I personally don’t care one way or another about these things.

I didn’t see anything from NC Ag about quarantine measures here. I understand it’s likely very important to them as they’ve been pushing wine grape production and wineries for quite a few years with much success. So I’ll report it and let them do what needs doing. Their website says they have been aware of a small population on the Forsyth/Guilford County border since 2022. I live on that border but had no clue they were in our area already.

So far I’ve seen a total of 1. Good to hear from those with experience it isn’t that big of a deal.

 

[mcfarmall]

Problematic for Ailanthus?? That's like being upset about a bug that devours crabgrass or ground ivy. The world would be a better place if every ailanthus tree disappeared. Talk about an invasive species!!

 

[rc51stierhoff]

Very pretty. However it is another invasive species from Asia.

I hope they will eat the wood boring bees.

 

[RCW]

SLF was predicted to be a major problem. I recall the grape and possible maple issues.

After what I’ve seen with EAB and ash trees, I don’t discount any of these invasive species.

There’s a lot of ash being harvested to either salvage dead trees or to a lesser extent beat the EAB for live trees. Not much ash will survive in the near term.

They all have the potential to be really bad.