Spotted lanternfly hatching season looms in Berks, 13 other Pennsylvania counties
Public urged to join fight against invasive insect.
Marie Hibshman discovered spotted lanternflies at her Lebanon County home for the first time last summer, and now she's preparing to attack the Asian invader where it's most vulnerable: She intends to destroy its eggs.
She's taken up arms: a plastic card, a credit card-sized tool minted by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, that can be used to scrape the insect's eggs off trees, grills, firewood, patio furniture, any of the myriad outdoor surfaces on which the bug pastes its spawn.
Hibshman grabbed a card after a recent public meeting in Myerstown about the pest, encouraged by government speakers, including Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding, to act.
Since the sap-sucking pest, a threat to grape vines, fruit trees and hardwoods, was discovered in Berks County in 2014, its first sighting in the U.S., the Agriculture Department has counted on a vigilant public to control the bug's spread, mainly by killing it, until scientific research discovers more effective methods.
Lanternflies have invaded 14 counties in Pennsylvania and three nearby states: New Jersey, Delaware and Virginia.
Make sure to destroy
Hibshman plans to join the fight, if she finds eggs on the trees at her Richland home. Only a few weeks remain before the eggs begin to hatch, typically in late April or early May. State experts engaged in the battle against the spotted lanternfly are urging the public to scrape and properly destroy egg masses to cut down the lanternfly population this summer, when the bugs grow into adults.
It's imperative to destroy the eggs after scraping, crushing them under foot or dropping them into a plastic bag filled with hand sanitizer or rubbing alcohol for best results, according to experts. Eggs that simply fall to the ground after scraping could hatch in warmer weather.
"Some of them certainly could hatch, so 'destroy' has to be part of the response," said Beth Finlay, a Penn State Extension Master Gardener coordinator in Berks. "Time is quickly running out."
It's a warning that Hibshman says she'll heed. A neighbor allows the eggs they scrape off their trees to fall to the ground. With the promise of a heavier infestation of spotted lanternflies spreading to Lebanon this summer, Hibshman intends to scrape and kill as many of the pests as possible.
"I've not done it yet," she said, " but I want to learn, because I know the spotted lanternflies are coming."
Public help needed
To scrape eggs off tree bark or other surfaces, all you need is something with a hard edge a pocket knife, a trowel, an old debit card or even one of the Agriculture Department's plastic cards. Fill a plastic bag with sanitizer or rubbing alcohol they've been found to work best, experts say and hold it underneath, scraping the egg mass into it. You can throw the bag into the trash.
If the eggs fall, simply mash them under foot, experts say.
A typical egg mass is about an inch long, and holds 30 to 50 eggs plastered by the bugs on surfaces by a grayish putty that dries and cracks over time.
Pennsylvania's strategy for controlling the insect's spread has included public vigilance, encouraging residents to destroy eggs and swat, stomp and otherwise kill the pests.
"It's a simple act, but it's effective," said Redding. "For some folks, that's what they can do, and if you do, thank you."
The public's help is needed to control the spread of the spotted lanternfly until researchers find effective ways to contain, or eradicate, the bug, according to Redding.
"We'd like to say we're getting rid of it; that remains a goal," said Redding. "But we've got to do research."
The spotted lanternfly is native to China, India and Vietnam, so it's a mystery to U.S. entomologists.
"There's just so much unknown since this insect has never appeared in the Americas, anywhere," said Finlay. "We're getting our research by the day."
Hunters help out
The Agriculture Department enlisted hunters before deer season last November, urging them to scrape eggs they found while sitting in trees in the woods to wait for a buck or doe. The spotted lanternfly typically lays eggs from September through the first prolonged wintry winter spell around mid-November during the last two years before dying off in the cold. The eggs are hardy, surviving the winter until temperatures rise in the spring.
"It's remarkable the response we got from hunters," said Redding. "They really did a good job of scanning the trees."
In January, the Agriculture Department gave away thousands of egg scraping kits including an Agriculture Department card, a Ziploc bag and small bottle of hand sanitizer tucked in a cloth bag at the Pennsylvania Farm Show, an attempt to raise public awareness of the pest.
It's impossible to determine how bad the spotted lanternfly scourge will be this summer, said Finlay. But there are hundreds of thousands across Pennsylvania's infested counties, said Finlay.
Once a plague on eastern Berks, the spotted lanternfly seems to have moved outward from District Township, its heavy infestations found farther away. One theory: Adults, which use their straw-like mouth parts to drink a plant's sap, abandon a feeding area when their host plants lose their vitality, moving into new territory where they eventually lay their eggs.
"That whole thing is not understood yet," said Finlay. "We have a lot of people looking into it."
Contact Jim Lewis: 610-371-5059 or firstname.lastname@example.org.
To destroy eggs
Scrape them off a tree, grill or other outdoor surface using a credit card, debit card, knife or any object with a solid edge.
Press down on the eggs and pop them to destroy them, or scrape them into a plastic Ziploc bag containing rubbing alcohol or hand sanitizer to kill them.
Make sure the liquid touches the eggs.
Place Ziploc bag into a second bag, seal, and toss them into the trash.
Source: Penn State Extension
Don't confuse with lichen
Lichen tends to be grayish green and scaly; spotted lanternfly egg masses tend to be light tan or gray, covered in a putty-like substance that typically is cracked this time of year.
Lichen are harmless to trees; spotted lanternfly egg masses hold 30 to 50 eggs, producing nymphs that grow into sap-sucking adults by summer.
Source: Penn State Extension