8 August 2023

Aaarrg! They’re everywhere! Pittsburgh is in the midst of a spotted lanternfly (Lycorma delicatula) invasion and it’s just plain creepy. These bugs don’t bite but they’re large, they leap and fly unpredictably, and there are just so many of them. Even when damaged like the one above, they’re disgusting. Make them go away!

So what kills them? I’ve seen a few birds attempting to catch the nymphs but those few birds can hardly make a dent in such an overwhelming insect population.

For now it’s up to humans kill them. Not with poison but by more ingenious means.

DO NOT USE STICKY TAPE. It kills birds and beneficial insects –> Never Use Sticky Tape.

How about robots? Carnegie-Mellon’s Robotics Institute developed a robot that scrubs spotted lanternfly (SLF) egg masses off trees in winter so they can’t hatch the following spring. This is fascinating and useful in the long run for orchards but it doesn’t help us today. (1:29 minute video)

Another long term solution is to introduce SLF’s natural predators. Researchers in Delaware are studying two species of parasitic wasps from China that target spotted lanternflies but it will take years to make sure these tiny wasps are totally dedicated to SLF and will not attack North American species. If these wasps pass the test they’ll provide a long term solution for vineyards. (3:00 minute video)

And then there’s just plain killing them. The second half of this 2022 video shows how a woman in Gillette, NJ kills them in bulk. Favorite tool? An electric “tennis” racket! (Entire video here is 8 mins long. Excerpt is 4:00 minutes)

video from VICENews on YouTube

If you live in southwestern PA and haven’t seen a lot of lanternflies yet, just wait. Butler, Lawrence, Fayette and Somerset Counties were added to the SLF quarantine this year. Forewarned is forearmed … with an electric “tennis” racket!

Check out local answers you can use right now in this 1-hour-long Lunch and Learn about Spotted Lanternflies presented by Phipps Conservatory.

(photo by Kate St. John, map from PA Dept of Ag via Penn State Extension, video credits in the captions)

14 July 2023

Back in the ‘Burgh from our trip to Cape Cod, the first thing I noticed in my neighborhood was a troop of red nymph spotted lanternflies crawling on walls and sidewalks near an ailanthus tree — their host tree, a.k.a Tree of Heaven.

Red nymphs are the fourth and final instar in spotted lanternfly development.

When the adult is ready to emerge, the red nymph stands motionless while the adult body pokes its head out and molts the red nymph exoskeleton. Penn State Extension describes lanternfly stages and has a photo of the adult emerging here.

I don’t know how long the red nymph stage lasts but I’m sure we’ll soon see large flying(!) spotted lanternflies.

It won’t be long now. 🙁

For tips on how to control them, see my June article, Outsmart Spotted Lanternflies, and Penn State’s Extension educators explain spotted lanternfly life cycle, offer management tips

(photos by Kate St. John and from Wikimedia Commons)

12 June 2023

They’re here, they’re creepy and they’re not going away any time soon. Spotted lanternflies (Lycorma delicatula) have made it to Pittsburgh and are following the typical trajectory of invasive insect pests: Barely noticeable (2018) to Overwhelming (2022, 2023+) to Hard to Find (declines in about 3 years: 2025).

The most important thing to remember is this from Penn State Extension: Avoid overreacting to the situation and teach others not to overreact. Insecticides won’t eradicate the pests but will kill the good bugs, bees and butterflies. Instead, let’s outsmart spotted lanternflies.

First, know the enemy and its weakness: Spotted lanternflies can only crawl up, they can’t reverse!

You can also learn online from Penn State Extension’s Spotted Lanternfly Management Guide.

Third, protect a favorite tree using this circle trap (video below). You can make your own circle trap or buy one here. Do not use sticky tape as it traps and kills birds (trying to eat the bugs) and beneficial insects.

Fourth, be brave. Yesterday Claire Staples outsmarted hundreds of spotted lanternfly nymphs by smashing them with her bare hands! Here are her photos and a quote from her email. (How many nymphs can you see in the right hand photo?)

I killed over 200 in a 10 foot section along the power lines through Swisshelm Park slag heap.  It was the only place where we found them but it was amazing to see the density.  It was really easy to get them and my granddaughter watched and only a few escaped.  I would take the small branch with the bugs in the palm of my hand and place the other palm on [top of] it and start rolling my hands together.  I was amazed that my hands appeared clean and there was no odor.  I did wash my hands later but I was surprised that there was no residue.

— email from Claire Staples, 11 June 2023

That’s braver than I would have been!

(photos from Wikimedia Commons and Claire Staples; video embedded from Penn State Extension)

5 June 2023

If you noticed spotted lanternflies (Lycorma delicatula) in Pittsburgh last summer you remember seeing this one-inch long insect.

But they don’t start out this big.

Right now they are tiny black nymphs with white spots. I saw one perched on the edge of a metal chair yesterday at the Phipps BioBlitz and moved closer to confirm its identity. As I approached it jumped so far I couldn’t find it.

I tracked it down and smashed it with my shoe … and immediately wished I’d taken its picture. I found another one (there are lots of them) and learned how to get close enough for a cellphone photograph without making it jump. Not a sharp photo but you get the idea.

The first instar(*) nymphs are tiny — just 1/4 inch long — and well camouflaged, even on a silver chair.

Walking and hopping, they look for something to suck on, primarily Tree-of-heaven (Ailanthus altissima) but they are generalists so they’ll eat anything that appeals to them. Fortunately they are only deadly to Ailanthus and grapevines.

As they feed on plants the insects grow and change through various stages of development. The first, second and third instars continue to be black nymphs with white spots, just progressively larger [B]. The fourth instar is a red nymph with white spots at 3/4 inch long [C].

Right now they’re so small they are easy to overlook. When the one-inch-long flying adults emerge in July-to-September this invasive insect will be hard to ignore.

Read more about them at Cornell University’s Spotted Lanternfly Biology and Lifecycle.

(*) Definition of instar. noun, ZOOLOGY. A phase between two periods of molting in the development of an insect larva or other invertebrate animal. — from Oxford Languages via Google

(photos by Kate St. John, life phases photos from Penn State Extension)

31 July 2022

When the highly invasive spotted lanternfly (Lycorma delicatula) was first discovered in western Pennsylvania in January 2020 it was a non event for most of us. We knew the bug was plaguing eastern Pennsylvania and that Allegheny County became a lanternfly quarantine zone, but for two years most of us never saw one. That changed this summer when many Pittsburghers found them in their own backyards.

Frank Izaguirre’s experience in Oakland is typical. The first one appeared on 17 July but within ten days the number of bugs had grown so fast that finding and killing them, as recommended by the PA Dept of Agriculture(*), became a daunting daily chore.

Annie Quinn noticed them in a park and enlisting her kids to squash them on the ground. Then she looked up and saw hundreds and hundreds coating the upper branches of the trees. “Kids, this problem is much bigger than we are.”

Indeed! I saw hundreds (thousands?) on the North Shore near the Carnegie Science Center on Tuesday 26 July.

And it’s going to get worse before it gets better.

Julie Urban, an associate professor of entomology at Penn State, said residents of the area will see a lot more lanternflies in September.

“They’re starting to emerge as adults about now and then when they start to mate more heavily you’re going to see a lot more in the first couple weeks of September,” said Urban. “That’s just when they’re more active. So, be ready for that.”

— Trib-Live: Spotted Lanternfly numbers way up in Allegheny County

Since each female lanternfly lays an egg mass containing 30-50 eggs, the population grows exponentially every year: 1 > 50 > 2,500 > 125,000 > 6.2 million!

It took just 2.5 years to go from “What’s the problem?” to “Oh my gosh!”

There is no way we can squash them individually. However there are easy ways to passively kill them in our yards. Three years ago a girl in New Jersey came up with a very inexpensive and effective trap.

video from 69News WFMZ-TV on YouTube

Other inexpensive do-it-yourself traps are described at these YouTube links: A simple tulle trap, the simplified hoop trap and an elaborate v2 Trap that requires tools. In any case if you make a trap, use netting not glue. Glue tape indiscriminately kills bees, bats and small birds that try to feast on the trapped bugs.

This is our first Summer of the Spotted Lanternfly in Pittsburgh, but it’s not the last.

Read more about the current outbreak at Trib-Live: Spotted Lanternfly numbers way up in Allegheny County.

(*) The PA Dept of Agriculture is encouraging anyone who sees a spotted lanternfly to kill it and report it online here or by calling 1-888-422-3359.

(photos by Frank Izaguirre, Kate St. John and from Wikimedia Commons, video from 69News WFMZ-TV on YouTube)

p.s. On 5 August 2022 one landed on my bedroom window on the 6th floor of a highrise. Uh oh!