let me guess you searched this video because you just came across
one, a few, or maybe hundreds or thousands of this very interesting looking insect
right here - the spotted lanternfly. They may be
crawling around in your backyard, hanging out on your trees, or covering
your deck and patio. So what's the deal with these things?
Where did it come from and why are they everywhere all of a sudden? In this video
i'm going to tell you all about the spotted lanternfly,
the problems it poses, and i'll even show you a few creative ways to get rid of
them. the spotted lanternfly is native to
northern china, vietnam and taiwan. in these regions it is kept
in check by natural predators like egg parasitoids
and carnivorous insects. the united states population is believed to have
come from a shipment of landscaping stone from china in 2014.
the insect lays their eggs on smooth surfaces such as
tree bark branches and even stones and rocks
and the stones that were shipped from china to berks county in pennsylvania
apparently contained many eggs. when the following spring arrived the eggs that
were attached to the rocks hatched and out came the first spotted
lanternflies in the united states since then it has spread all throughout
southeastern pennsylvania and has slowly reached new jersey,
delaware, new york, and even northern virginia. You
know those brown marmorated stink bugs you see around your house in the
springtime? yeah those actually came from china too
in 1998 and have spread from allentown
pennsylvania all throughout the united states.
it's eerily similar to the situation that we have going on right now
with a spotted lanternfly. it is very important to understand basic
information about the bug if we're going to effectively combat it
so here's a bit of background the spotted lanternfly is first and foremost
a planthopper. Planthoppers are super interesting and come in
all sorts of beautiful shapes and sizes i mean just look at this one
like how is that that's amazing or this one i mean
just like is this real? but anyway being a plant hopper means
that it feeds on the sap of plants during its entire life cycle.
the insect has five different life stages the eggs survive the cold winter
and hatch in the spring and the little first instar nymphs
emerge when they first leave the eggs they kind of look like a pale shriveled
up shrimp similar to how i looked after not leaving the house for monster and
quarantine they start to feed on plants right away
in june or july second and third instar nymphs emerge
this is a picture of a nymph molting its first instar exoskeleton
and oh there's another pale shrimp again kinda scary
it's naked uh are we allowed to show this?
by mid july you'll start to notice some red color to the nymphs
this is their fourth instar or stage of life
and the last stage before they turn into those pesky flying adults
kinda cool if you ask me but still just as annoying and still feeding away
on your plants early august is usually when you'll start to notice a lot more
adults the adults now have wings two pairs
actually outer more dull wings with cool spots
and the much more beautiful bright red wings underneath
despite having two pairs of wings they absolutely suck at flying
they usually just hop away and flutter until they smack into a wall
this may be one of the limiting factors of the range expansion
imagine if they could fly better they would just have spread out much further
than they are right now in the fall the adult females begin to
lay eggs the females have big yellow bellies and
will lay their eggs in rows on smooth surfaces sometimes
covering them with a glue-like substance you may notice these patches on your
trees and they're quite easy to scrape off once they're laid
the eggs will stay here all winter unless disturbed and the next spring the
life cycle will start all over females can lay anywhere from 30 to 50
eggs at once much like you have your own favorite
restaurant this insect prefers to feed on certain plants over others
in its native range its absolute favorite restaurant i mean tree
is the tree of heaven or elanthus altissima
it's a good thing that the tree of heaven is native to asia and is not
found anywhere in the us uh what's that
are you serious the tree of heaven is found all over the us
it's one of the most invasive plants of all time
very harmful to native forests oh okay yeah well actually the tree of heaven is
found almost everywhere in the u.s so that's
just great it is believed by some experts that this
tree is actually necessary for the insect to progress through certain life
stages although there is no scientific evidence
to back that statement quite yet but what makes the spotted lanternfly so
dangerous in the united states is that it likes to
feed on native species of grape vines fruit trees and certain hardwood trees
over time the trees are damaged by the lanternflies and will yield less fruit
or less hardwood which strongly impacts the economy in a negative way
it also poops a lot its excrement is called honeydew and it
is a sweet substance that coats anything below a plant that is being fed on
the honeydew attracts ants yellow jackets and mold among other things
if you ever wanted to be showered in poo hey no judgments here
just stand under an infested tree of heaven a 2019 report by penn state
economists found that the lanternfly costs pennsylvania
an estimated 50 million dollars per year in lost crops and damage
as well as up to 500 lost jobs if this insect were to spread nationwide the
cost could reach in the billions per year
in damages lost profits eradication and research
it has been called the worst invasive insect in almost two
centuries what makes this problem worse is that there are no natural predators
to the spotted lanternfly in the u.s sure we do have some carnivorous insects
like spiders and praying mantis that will feed on them
but they don't make a dent in the vast populations of the spotted lanternfly
the bug's bright red colors and white spots
usually indicate that the insect is poisonous or unpalatable
and birds and other animals have learned to avoid these coloration patterns
even though the spotted lanternfly is not poisonous most things avoid eating
them hopefully some will start to catch on
soon and take advantage of such a huge abundant food source so now that we know
a little bit more about the insect and the danger it poses
the best way to combat these things is by getting rid of as many as we can
around our properties and communities the bugs have naturalized meaning that
no matter how hard we try to stomp out every last one of them
it will be impossible to completely eradicate them at this point they have
spread and established populations in our forests
and green spaces and are pretty much inaccessible in some spots
however that doesn't mean we can't slow their spread to new regions and buy
scientists more time to figure out more effective ways to get rid of them
every lanternfly you kill could prevent 30 to 100 new eggs from being laid
which is a pretty significant number so here are some of the best ways to get
rid of them number one have a stomping contest it can be kind
of fun to run around and step on as many as you can find
remember they are plant hoppers and they can jump very quickly and very far
but they get tired after a few jumps so be persistent and keep following them
also here's a tip instead of trying to step on them from behind
step on them from the front they can't jump backwards so they usually freeze
and have nowhere to go number two tape your trees if you have
them all over your trees you can wrap a few
pieces of sticky tape around your tree the spotted lanternfly will climb up and
down the trees a few times a day so by taping you can trap thousands this
is extremely effective because the bugs especially nymphs get stuck to the tape
and will die here you can replace the tape every few days
however it is extremely important to cover the
outside of your tape with a fine mesh or chicken wire
to minimize bycatch for example some birds will get stuck to the tape
and die as well and we definitely don't want that to happen
so by covering the tape with wire you can prevent this
number three a plastic bottle trick this one works best for adults
if your tree is covered with them simply hold a plastic bottle up to the back
of them and they will jump right in it's pretty effective and quick
what you do with them once they're inside the bottle is up to you number
four a shop vac now this one is incredibly
fun simply take a shop vac and have at it on
an infested tree number five get rid of your tree of
heavens if they don't have their favorite tree around
they won't do as well it is important to note here that the tree of heaven is a
very prolific root sucker and will send up tons of new
shoots if you cut down your large stump after you cut it down it is necessary to
keep cutting back the sprouts as much as possible until the root
system is exhausted or more simply you can buy a root
killing herbicide that will do the same number six dish detergent in a bucket
mix dish detergent with water and simply scoop the spotted lanternflies into the
bucket this works best with nymphs i think they
will not be able to survive in the mixture
seven do not use a general pesticide these are typically not super effective
and will actually do more harm to the native
helpful insects than to the pests there are many negative side effects of
spraying general pesticides into the environment
and there are much better ways to get rid of the spotted lanternfly number
eight get creative you can use a fly zapper
you can build cool contraptions on the trees where only one entrance for the
bug is available and it leads directly into a trap you
can shoot them with a bb gun you can take a flamethrower to them uh
just kidding don't don't do that and lastly i wanted to mention that if the
spotted lanternfly is new to your area or this is the first time you're seeing
it please report it to your state
department of agriculture there will be links in the description
of this video on how to report this will help scientists and state
workers track the spread of the bug and help us stay ahead additionally you
can use citizen science apps like inaturalist and squisher
to track its spread and have a little fun competing with friends
on who can squish the most but that's pretty much it
this will be another bug that we have to get used to hopefully native wildlife
will soon catch on scientists will develop unique traps and
we will be able to prevent the extensive damage that this thing is capable of
unleashing until then keep squishing
you