It's been ten years since the spotted lanternflies began showing up in Pennsylvania. Brian Walsh, Spotted Lanternfly Researcher at Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences began noticing the insects when he was a landscaper years ago.

"I was running a landscaping business, and it lanternfly landed very close to where we worked from just a few miles. And we realized that what we were seeing on the ground didn't really match up with what we were being told by some of the government agencies that were responding. And so we had to do our own research to figure out what would work to kill them and do our best with, helping our customers to, help keep their trees alive. At the time, we thought that all the trees and shrubs that they were feeding on were going to be killed by lanternfly, "said Walsh.

Soon after, Walsh joined the researches at Penn State College. He learned spotted lanternflies are prolific, and they feed on just about anything.

"It has a hugely varied diet and it uses the entire landscape. A lot of, insect pests will focus on one or maybe a few, different host plants, in, throughout the landscape. But spotted lanternfly is able to use pretty much anything that's available to it from all the way down to weeds and weedy grasses right up through full sized trees, depending on where they are in the lifecycle stage. And because it can move freely through a huge amount of our landscape, it's like trying to catch a moving target when you're trying to control, "said Walsh.

For years, it was believed that the spotted lanternflies only fed on grapes, and trees of haven. However, researches have found the invasive species will feed on black walnuts, maple trees, and more.

"We know that there are several others that are also preferred hosts. And it kind of depends on the time of the year when the nymphs are very small, they'll feed on just about anything shrubs, small shrubs, weedy plants, just perennial weeds and roadside ditches. They're happy that anything that's off that they can get a meal from, they'll do it and they move. They move constantly. When we see the fourth in stars, and early adults, it's really where we see the, the lanternfly start to congregate more and we'll start seeing them grouped up more. We see black walnut is a very common host at that time period. Black walnut is very common and very important hardwood tree in Pennsylvania. And there's a lot of it, especially through the southern part of the state. They really prefer the black walnut. And then later on in the fall, we see a lot of movement towards maple trees, red maple syrup, silver maples. And they will they will use this to finish out the lifecycle and lay their eggs. So it's a it's a moving target. It's a moving diet, "said Walsh.

Even though ten years have passed, it is still important that the spotted lanternflies are killed because they cause so much damage to our crops.

"If you're not comfortable using insecticides, you can. You can just squash them with a fly swatter. Stomp on them. The important thing is, if you find them in a place where they're not known to be yet, make sure to report them. Report them to the Department of Agriculture, "said Walsh.

 

 

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