What to Do About the Spotted Lanternfly (Smash It)

Move over, homicide hornets. There’s a brand new invasive bug on the town: the noticed lanternfly.

The bugs first arrived in Pennsylvania in 2014, however they’re spreading throughout the Northeast. Eight New Jersey counties have been labeled as quarantine zones by the state Department of Agriculture, which means anybody leaving these counties ought to ensure that no lanternflies are hitching a experience. Other states are cracking down and asking residents to kill any of the invasive bugs they discover.

These simply recognizable bugs measure as much as an inch (2.5 centimeters) in size. When they’re totally grown, their entrance wings are white with black speckles, and their hind wings are fire-engine purple with black spots. And they’ll’t fly very far, in order that they cartoonishly hop between crops. Unlike homicide hornets, they don’t truly sting or chunk.

Instead, they pose a risk to agriculture. Spotted lanternflies infest fruit trees and suck out the sap. They may eat their manner via agricultural fields. When the bugs chow down, they excrete a sticky goop known as honeydew which kinds a movie on crops and interferes with photosynthesis, decreasing crop yields.

“The biggest concern is it could devastate our forests, our neighborhoods, and our agriculture,” mentioned Susan Ndiaye, group horticulture educator on the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Orange County in Middletown, New York, told the Times Union. “It could cause damage to trees and kill grapes.”

The noticed lanternfly is indigenous to components of southern China, Taiwan, and Vietnam. Researchers imagine lanternfly eggs got here to the U.S. once they acquired caught on a cargo of stone. The bugs had been first noticed flying within the nation in Berks County, Pennsylvania in 2014, and the invasion has since spread to a dozen northeastern states from Maine to North Carolina. There have additionally been sightings in Rhode Island and as far west as Oregon as effectively.

In addition to the eight counties in New Jersey underneath quarantine, 34 in Pennsylvania are in the identical state. That means residents and guests don’t simply need to test their footwear and shoulders for lanternflies, it additionally restricts the transport of wooden merchandise, yard waste, development supplies, crops, and different outside gear. It might sound bizarre to take these precautions, however they might work as a result of the bugs unfold like little hitchhikers, attaching themselves to camping gear, Christmas trees, and no matter else they’ll get onto.

If you come throughout these bugs, consultants say you need to report them to agricultural officers after which homicide them—severely. The New Jersey Department of Agriculture suggests utilizing chemical pest controls. Or alternatively, the New York City Parks Department says you can straight up stomp on them.

“Harming our city’s wildlife is prohibited, but in an effort to slow the spread of this troublesome species, we are putting out a one-time call: if you see a spotted lanternfly, please squish and dispose of this invasive pest,” the division mentioned in a statement.