By Marcus Schneck, mschneck@pennlive.com
Since 2014 Pennsylvania has been battling an invader from Asia. The spotted lanternfly could pose an enormous threat to agriculture and home landscaping across the state and beyond.
It could even threaten your Christmas tree.
Christmas invader
Case in point: A woman in Warren County had two clusters of spotted lanternfly eggs attached to her pre-cut Christmas tree last season. She didn't notice them until some of the eggs hatched and she saw a few strange-looking insects inside her home in early January, when the tree was still up, Joseph Zoltowski, director of the New Jersey Department of Agriculture's Division of Plant Industry told NJ.com.
"They're very hard to spot," Zoltowski told NJ.com.
In the Warren County case, two egg masses — each of which can hold up to 30 to 50 eggs — were found on the bark of the tree’s trunk, Zoltowski said.
Zoltowski said anyone who is planning to buy a pre-cut Christmas tree this year should carefully check the tree before driving it home, to make sure no eggs or live insects are clinging to the trunk or any branches.
The quarantine
The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture has imposed a quarantine in southeastern Pennsylvania as one of the approaches to prevent the spread of the invasive spotted lanternfly across Pennsylvania.
Businesses operating in the quarantine zone must have permits to move equipment and goods within and out of the zone. The quarantine also regulates the movement of plants, plant-based materials and outdoor items from the zone.
How well that quarantine will work remains to be seen.
Penn State Extension recently compared two recent quarantine efforts against other invaders.
Stone-fruit disease
Plum pox virus, which originated in Europe, was discovered in 1999 in a peach orchard in Adams County. The disease didn’t kill trees, but it reduced the yield and quality of stone fruits like peaches, plums and cherries.
The department put a quarantine in place to prohibit the movement of stone fruit trees and grafting wood out of the containment area. A program of remove and destroyed infected trees followed. And, after 1,846 acres were cleared, plum pox virus is not a concern in Pennsylvania today.
Killing the ash trees
A quarantine against the emerald ash borer, which a native of Asia that was discovered in southeastern Michigan in the 1990s but not recognized for the damage it was doing to ash trees in 2002, did not have a similar impact. The insect has devastated native ash trees across 31 states, including Pennsylvania.
Arrived in 2014
The spotted lanternfly is native to Asia, but in 2014 was discovered in Berks County, Pennsylvania, where it’s believed to have transported in a shipment of landscaping stone.
The department imposed a quarantine zone covering Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Chester, Delaware, Lancaster, Lebanon, Lehigh, Monroe, Montgomery, Northampton, Philadelphia and Schuylkill counties.
Lanternflies also have been found in New Jersey, New York and Virginia.
A huge threat
According to Penn State Extension, the spotted lanternfly “could be the most destructive species in 150 years,” posing “a significant threat to Pennsylvania agriculture, including the grape, tree-fruit, hardwood and nursery industries, which collectively are worth nearly $18 billion to the state's economy,” as well as high-value ornamentals in home landscapes.
Sucking sap
The spotted lanternfly attacks fruit trees, but not the fruit itself. It uses its piercing-sucking mouthparts to feed on the sap in trunks, branches, twigs and leaves. The oozing wounds will leave a greyish or black trail along the bark of the plant.
As it digests the sap, the insect excretes a substance known as honeydew that, along with sap from these weeping wounds, can attract bees and other insects. There may be a buildup of this sticky fluid on infested plants and on the ground below.
The honeydew and sap also provide a medium for growth of fungi, such as sooty mold, which can cover leaf surfaces and stunt growth. Plants with heavy infestations may not survive.
Signs and symptoms
Trees, such as tree of heaven and willow, will develop weeping wounds. These wounds will leave a greyish or black trail along the trunk. This sap will attract other insects to feed, notably wasps and ants.
In late fall, adults will lay egg masses on host trees and nearby smooth surfaces like stone, outdoor furniture, vehicles, and structures. Newly laid egg masses have a grey mud-like covering which can take on a dry cracked appearance over time. Old egg masses appear as rows of 30-50 brownish seed-like deposits in 4-7 columns on the trunk, roughly an inch long.
Tree of heaven
Spotted lanternflies prefer tree of Heaven as a primary host, but are also attracted to grape, cherry, peach, apple, pine, sugar maple and cherry trees.
Tree-of-heaven, commonly referred to as ailanthus, is a highly invasive, fast-growing, deciduous tree native to Asia and Australia. It was first introduced into the U.S. in the Philadelphia area in 1784, and later to the West Coast in the 1850s.
It was widely planted as an urban street tree and as a home landscape tree, but has escaped into the wild and become a common and major invader in urban areas, farmlands and forests across North America.
Marcus Schneck | mschneck@pennlive.com
Limited predators
Although spiders and praying mantises have been observed preying upon spotted lanternflies throughout the area the invading insect now occupies in southeastern Pennsylvania. But huge numbers of lanternflies are easily overwhelming any impact the spiders and mantises might have, and there are no other known natural enemies in the U.S.
What can you do?
In addition to establishing and enforcing the quarantine zone, the team of agencies and organizations battling the spotted lanternfly in Pennsylvania has issued guidelines for homeowners:
Check your car, outdoor equipment, etc., for eggs, nymphs and adults when moving in and out of the quarantine zone.
Don’t move firewood.
Scrape any egg masses from trees, houses and anywhere else you find them.
Band trees to trap and kill nymphs in the early spring. (Some birders have raised concerns about the sticky bands because of birds that have become trapped by them.)
Remove and destroy tree-of-heaven.
If needed, protect trees by applying insecticides using foliar or soil drench methods or consult a local tree care service.
Marcus Schneck | mschneck@pennlive.com
Lifecycle
In Pennsylvania, the spotted lanternfly overwinters in egg masses laid on smooth bark, stone and other flat surfaces.
The first of four immature stages, or instars, began emerging from the egg masses in mid-May, with a few individuals that had molted to second instar nymphs by the end of May. The first instar nymph is black with white spots and wingless. As it grows, the Spotted Lanternfly develops red patches in addition to the white spots.
Nymphs spread from the initial site by crawling or jumping up any woody or non-woody plant it comes across to feed.
When will you see them?
Adults can be seen as early as the middle of July and take on a much different appearance. Adults at rest have a black head and grayish wings with black spots. The tips of the wings are a combination of black rectangular blocks with grey outlines. When startled or flying the spotted lanternfly will display hind wings that are red at the base and black at the tip with a white stripe dividing them. The red portion of the wing is also adorned with black spots. The abdomen is bright to pale yellow with bands of black on the top and bottom surfaces.
While a poor flyer, the spotted lanternfly is a strong jumper.
Costly battle
Pennsylvania this year allocated $3 million in dedicated state funding to combat the spotted lanternfly, while the U.S. Department of Agriculture has provided $17.5 million.
According to the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, the funding has the coalition, which also includes numerous local partners, invest in a statewide survey, control and treatment services, grants and research.
Research
several important questions are being investigated. These include testing the effects of chipping woody material on spotted lanternfly egg mass survivorship, the effects of various existing pesticides on immature life stages, and the attractiveness of certain plant volatiles for use in trapping programs by the USDA research lab in Massachusetts.
Universities like Penn State, Kutztown, University of Pennsylvania, Temple, Rutgers, University of Delaware, and others continue to work on several projects related to Spotted Lanternfly control, non-target impacts, biology, and economic impact.
More about the spotted lanternfly
- Penn State asks visitors to check for lanternfly before visiting
- Pa., feds focus media session on public awareness of spotted lanternfly
- Pa. budget includes twice as much proposed to fight spotted lanternfly
- Feds allocate $17.5 million in emergency funding to combat spotted lanternfly in Pa.
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