All About the Spotted Lanternfly & How to Get Rid of Them!

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

Channel: Andrew The Arborist

Views: 327,337

Keywords: spotted lanternfly, spotted, lanternfly, spotted lanternfly trap, nymphs, spotted lanternfly swarm, stomp, trap, how to kill spotted lanternfly, dawn, dish soap, soap, tape, trees, tree of heaven, lycorma delicatula, invasive, damaging, insect, spotted lanternfly prevention, pest control, control, ailanthus altissima, grapevines, adults, female, laying eggs, life stage, information, how to get rid of spotted lanternfly, philadelphia, eggs, honeydew, water bottle, flying, infestation, spray, planthoppers

Id: 3KwglQ3Inn4

Length: 10min 37sec (637 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 27 2020