PENNSYLVANIA (WHTM) — Spotted lanternflies. Usually, we’d be killing them right now, but have you seen any yet?
“All it takes is one adult, in fact, then to lay eggs and start a newly popular,” Press Secretary of the Department of Agriculture Shannon Powers said.
We’re used to seeing spotted lanternflies in the Midstate this time of year, but so far this summer, we’re not seeing very many at all.
“You see them if you know what to look for. They are, right now, they are teeny tiny black with white spots. Some of them are about the same size as a tick some are a little larger so if you know what to look for you may notice them,” Powers said.
The invasive pests, which are native to China, can be very destructive to trees and have spread across our state over the last several years. Out of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties, 51 are in a quarantine zone for spotted lanternflies, but with the lack of sightings so far this summer could it be a sign that the worst may be over?
“I never rule anything out, but I’m just saying that’s like your biggest target. If you can get through September and maybe early October, you know, hardly see anything, probably in the clear. But you know we’re talking about bugs so never say never,” Extension Educator for Penn State Extension Amy Korman said.
Lanternflies feast on trees, especially fruit trees. They also like rose bushes and grapes, but often, they hop aboard our cars or our bodies and that’s how they spread.
“I always suggest that people be very vigilant about moving spotted lanternflies around, even though a large part of our state is now used to seeing spotted lanternflies there are some places that don’t have them and so we don’t want to introduce them some,” Korman said.
But if and when we do see them, experts want us to do what we do every summer — squash them.
“That’s the best way to deal with them. I tell everybody the only good spotted lanternflies are dead ones, so if you can contribute to the population of dead ones, good, because that means those spotted lanternflies are not going to reproduce and give us more,” Korman said.
