“We believe they leave an area when they have depleted their food source and need to find a better one,” Swackhamer said. But there are likely other factors at work. Horticulture extension educator Emelie Swackhamer said some might believe efforts to eradicate the bug are working, because they saw fewer lanternflies last year than in previous ones. Urban said egg masses look like small smears of mud from a distance close up, they contain neat, vertical rows of eggs about the size of caraway seeds.Ī muddy-looking spotted lanternfly egg mass is seen on a tree trunk. When spraying for lanternflies, Urban said it’s best to wait and see where they concentrate, rather than trying to spray proactively.ĭuring the winter, people can look for lanternfly egg masses on trees, cars, buildings, and other surfaces and destroy the masses by scraping and crushing them. “If you’re going to apply some type of product, don’t use anything that isn’t labeled for lanternfly pest control,” Urban said. Urban said she’s seen a rise in home remedies, such as a mixture of dish soap and water, to try to control lanternflies, but some of those methods could cause unintended harm to native insects. ![]() They have to inspect vehicles and products to make sure they aren’t giving a ride to the hitchhiking lanternflies. Researchers noted the businesses feeling economic effects from the lanternflies are the ones that transport goods out of quarantine zones. She added that young trees are more likely to experience significant stress from spotted lanternfly feeding than mature trees. “A stressed tree may be more susceptible to other stressors such as disease, other insect pests or drought,” said Kelli Hoover, also a professor of entomology. ![]() Urban said early guidance was based on information about how the lanternfly affected crops in South Korea – where it is also invasive – but its impacts in the commonwealth are different.įor example, scientists initially believed it threatened all kinds of plants, including trees used for timber, an important industry in the state.īut while lanternflies can stress trees, it appears they only kill grapevines and tree of heaven, also an invasive species, directly by feeding on them.
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