By Kathleen Harvey, AAP Columnist
Over the last few decades, our world has become more interconnected. People, food, and plants travel around the globe on a daily basis. Despite customs agents inspecting cargo, non native plants and insects hitchhike on shipments, landing on foreign shores to wreak havoc. The latest of these is the Spotted Lanternfly, an invasive plant hopper native to China, Bangladesh, and Vietnam. This year, the Spotted Lanternfly has fully established itself in densely populated South Jersey counties like Camden, Gloucester and Burlington.
The Spotted Lanternfly, though not harmful to humans or pets, can harm plants as it feeds on the sap of native trees such as maple and black walnut. Each season, eggs laid in fall, hatch in spring, to become fully grown, wildly colorful adults hopping from tree to tree. During feeding, as it pierces plant tissue, the Spotted Lanternfly excretes a sugary substance known as honeydew, which promotes the growth of mold that further stresses and damages plants. The pest strongly prefers the now nearly ubiquitous tree of heaven, another non native invasive tree species. The Spotted Lanternfly is a huge threat to the agriculture industry in the tri-state area. They threaten economic impact and hundreds of thousands of jobs for those in the grape, apple, hops, and hardwood industries.
Lauren Bonus, an entomologist for the Camden County Mosquito Commission, said the county is just starting to grapple with how to control the spread of this insect in residential areas. She said adults that arrived last year laid eggs that hatched this year in sacs containing about 30 to 50 eggs each. These egg masses can be scraped off tree trunks, double bagged, and thrown away, with the option of placing the eggs in alcohol, bleach or hand sanitizer first. A Shop-Vac with Dawn dish detergent and water in the reservoir ensures that later instars of Lanternflies are killed, essentially sucking the bugs off each tree. Additional methods that have proven effective include spraying them with insecticidal soap or neem oil. Some people are using sticky tape, which is wrapped around the trunks of trees a few feet off the ground to capture them as they climb to feed on the branches and leaves. However, this method can also trap beneficial insects, birds and butterflies. To avoid trapping and killing desirable creatures such as pollinators, purchase hardware cloth, which is a heavy wire mesh, similar to chicken wire — and wrap it around the tape. This approach greatly enhances the chances of trapping only the Spotted Lanternflies.
Penn State Extension has additional instructions on their website for homeowners to manage the pests. In New Jersey, Rutgers asks that residents report sightings and locations with a photograph, to slanternfly@njaes.rutgers.edu. Let’s all do our part to help eradicate this unwelcome invader to our shores!
