Spotted Lanternfly invasion (1 Viewer)

[jobarules]

OMG I thought it was bad last year. 10x worse this year. These mother****ers are EVERYWHERE and they land on you all the time. I'm in NY. Just drove to Aberdeen, MD and it was even WORSE there than it was here. 2 to 3 landing on you every minute or so. This is gonna keep getting worse and worse. What can realistically be done about this?

 

[Galileo]

I didn't even know what these were until you posted this and I looked them up. Seems Ohio is part of the infested area, but I don't think I have seen one. As far as what can be done, the few articles I saw basically said squash them. Kill them and their eggs. I do not foresee this being an effective strategy. They have no natural predators here as they are an invasive species from China. So get to squashing...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ha9vDQuKa0s&ab_channel=TODAY

 

[belljr]

Seen a few around here but not a lot. THere was a ton in PA a couple years back. They are putting signs up locally about make sure you kill them

 

[GroveDiesel]

I didn't even know what these were until you posted this and I looked them up. Seems Ohio is part of the infested area, but I don't think I have seen one. As far as what can be done, the few articles I saw basically said squash them. Kill them and their eggs. I do not foresee this being an effective strategy. They have no natural predators here as they are an invasive species from China. So get to squashing...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ha9vDQuKa0s&ab_channel=TODAY

Give it another year or two. They’ll be everywhere. Wretched things.

 

[Keerock]

China Bug.

 

[bro1ncos]

Worst I've ever seen here in PA

 

[Jaysus]

I've been hearing about how bad they are for a few years now and have considered myself lucky that they were not very bad in my area. I started seeing them around my home last year, but it was not that bad and I assumed everyone was overreacting. This year though, holy wow, they are everywhere and are such a nuisance.

On the plus side, I have not seen nearly as many stink bugs the last few years... I wonder if they are competing for the same resources?

 

[Dr_Zaius]

We had them really bad in my area of PA three years ago. You would see hundreds of them if you looked up in the trees that they like, and those trees would be covered in the sticky stuff that they leave behind. We would kill dozens of them walking at lunch every day (pro tip - they can do a big hop, but it takes them a while to recharge, so if you just follow them after the big hop they are vulnerable). Strangely, last year and this year I have seen a lot less and I'm not sure why. People put sticky tape on tree trunks, which apparently causes the nymphs to get trapped there early in the life cycle when they climb up the trees, and also people were scraping and burning the eggs off of trees, but I'm not sure if either those or the squashing were enough to put a big dent in them. Rumor is that cardinals will eat them, and anecdotally I have seen an increase in the cardinal population. Regardless, it offers a bit of optimism for those of you currently dealing with a monster infestation, as it definitely got better here, although I agree that I can't see how they would ever be eradicated now that they've proliferated so much.

 

[Galileo]

I've been hearing about how bad they are for a few years now and have considered myself lucky that they were not very bad in my area. I started seeing them around my home last year, but it was not that bad and I assumed everyone was overreacting. This year though, holy wow, they are everywhere and are such a nuisance.

On the plus side, I have not seen nearly as many stink bugs the last few years... I wonder if they are competing for the same resources?

I still get the stink bugs...haven't seen a lanternfly

 

[Galileo]

We had them really bad in my area of PA three years ago. You would see hundreds of them if you looked up in the trees that they like, and those trees would be covered in the sticky stuff that they leave behind. We would kill dozens of them walking at lunch every day (pro tip - they can do a big hop, but it takes them a while to recharge, so if you just follow them after the big hop they are vulnerable). Strangely, last year and this year I have seen a lot less and I'm not sure why. People put sticky tape on tree trunks, which apparently causes the nymphs to get trapped there early in the life cycle when they climb up the trees, and also people were scraping and burning the eggs off of trees, but I'm not sure if either those or the squashing were enough to put a big dent in them. Rumor is that cardinals will eat them, and anecdotally I have seen an increase in the cardinal population. Regardless, it offers a bit of optimism for those of you currently dealing with a monster infestation, as it definitely got better here, although I agree that I can't see how they would ever be eradicated now that they've proliferated so much.

According to AZ Animals...

• Predators of the spotted lanternfly include praying mantises, chickens, garden spiders, gray catbirds, yellowjackets, wheel bugs, garter snakes, and koi fish.

but I also saw a reference to a Penn State study that asked the public to report what they see eating them, and cardinals were commonly reported.

 

[General Malaise]

Starting to understand why the cost of living is so high in the PNW......no bugs! (Well, no BAD bugs).