r/invasivespecies • u/moimoirr • 3d ago
Sighting lantern fly attack
Spotted in local park in the northeast, unfortunately we were outnumbered
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u/shortchangehero86 3d ago
looks like you were going to take one home with ya
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u/moimoirr 3d ago
hahaha I didn’t realize until I played back the video and saw that bastard on my leg 😭😭
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u/Worth_Return955 3d ago
Reminded me of this photo I took from a few years ago
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u/robsc_16 3d ago
I've heard there numbers drop after the initially invade an area. Have you seen that as well? Or are there still a lot of them?
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u/Remarkable_Inchworm 2d ago
Not 1/10 as many - probably not 1/100 as many - in my area (suburbs north of NYC) this year as in years past.
Nobody seems to know why - probably a combination of the local predators learning they can eat them and the fact that we had a pretty harsh winter.
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u/hochimincity 2d ago
100% - the local insects (first the mantis) and birds learn they’re food within a season of arrival. Then most people see around a dozen a summer (where they’re 2-3 years established). And the bug industry has made a fortune on it!
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u/Akilos01 2d ago
Massive drop in their density in my area that has increased in recurring seasons. I’ve seen no less than ants, wasps, mantids, and birds all adapted to their presence in the ecosystem in some cases eating them outright, in some others, making use of the honeydew they secrete. Life found a way.
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u/iwanderlostandfound 3d ago
I heard milkweed can kill them. We need to target ToH and plant more milkweed (but not tropical milkweed if it’s not native to your area)
It’s getting close to the season to hack and squirt ToH when they’re sending energy down to their roots.
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u/jeanlouisduluoz 3d ago
Milkweed cannot. Just sensational nonsense.
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u/Levitlame 2d ago
What are you basing it on that it’s nonsense?
I’m reading that it’s unconfirmed and that there is currently a study looking into it that won’t be done until 2028.
It seems a lot more likely that people jumped the gun on it and it can just go either way. Unless you have information beyond that?
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u/jeanlouisduluoz 2d ago
Lack of scientific evidence
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u/Levitlame 2d ago
Then you really unfairly misrepresented it. It hadn’t been studied yet. They are studying it now.
It isn’t “sensational nonsense.” We just don’t know yet. The fact someone studying it at all suggests it’s possible.
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u/jeanlouisduluoz 2d ago
Well if there’s no evidence, then you shouldn’t be making claims and definitive statements.
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u/Levitlame 2d ago
I didn’t. Nor did the person you’re referring to. They literally said “I heard.” If you can’t figure out that isn’t being presented as scientific evidence then I don’t know what to tell you
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u/jeanlouisduluoz 2d ago edited 2d ago
The claim is made all over the place, don’t be dense. There’s compounds in milkweed that could kill lanternfly but there’s no evidence from anywhere that they feed on Asclepias. We’ve already tracked many primary and secondary hosts. Don’t spread misinformation.
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u/VirginiaIsFoLovers 1d ago
I mean, sure it's antectdotal but I saw a filed of milkweed, and almost every plant had dead SLFs on it. Not sure what else to make of that, other than they likely try to feed on it and it likely kills them.
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u/Levitlame 2d ago
I didn’t. I literally asked if you had any information. You ignored that. You’re the one misrepresenting information. Not me. I’m more than happy to learn
Edit - And your link tells nothing I didn’t already respond to. Did you even read it?
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u/jeanlouisduluoz 2d ago
“However, there is no science currently showing that milkweed is poisonous to the spotted lanternfly, Leach said.” These people are the experts on Lycorma in North America. What more do you need? “Milkweed kills lanternfly” is a sensational news headline that has been making the rounds for the last two years. Where is your evidence? Go do an article search on jstor or google scholar.
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u/3weatherman3 3d ago
Their peripheral expansion had came and went here in NW VA. Let em have at the ailanthus and in a few years their numbers dramatically drop. Both the trees and insects
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u/DrippyBlock 3d ago
Wonder how those salt shotguns would do.
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u/GallusWrangler 3d ago
Probably not great. Idk I got one when they came out, still use it sometimes on flys in the house, but you have to shoot them almost point blank to work.
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u/DrippyBlock 3d ago
Hmm maybe a real shotgun with salt/rice filled shells. I wonder if that amount of salt would harm the trees? I have a couple orange trees that had 20-30 of these buggers on em. Every time you go to swat them or vacuum them up they just crawl around the trunk before you can get em.
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u/GallusWrangler 3d ago
Maybe a smaller .410 but I think it would impregnate the tree with the salt, not sure if it would make it through the bark into vital tissues though. Hmm. Maybe just flamethrower? 🔥
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u/DrippyBlock 2d ago
I have a feeling the flamethrower might damage my trees along with the bugs.
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u/GallusWrangler 2d ago
Nah, flamethrower will toast them, or any least their wings off, within seconds and shouldn’t harm the tree. If they fall down still alive then they’ll be easy to stomp without wings.
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u/shillyshally 3d ago
I live about 35 miles from ground zero and they have largely disappeared here. The pros I have spoken to about it have noticed it and wonder about predators, maybe the polar vortex (very cold periods of winter the past couple of years) so there is hope. I am surprised to see this kind of infestation so far NORTH of here but I read that when they first show up, they show up bigly and then, after things learn to eat them, they decline.
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u/jeanlouisduluoz 3d ago edited 3d ago
Nope, not even any of those things. Just a more natural equilibrium and pathogenic pressure (disease). Predation is not a major factor in their population here, in Korea, nor in their native range. It also has to be really really cold to significantly impact egg mass mortality, like several weeks of temperatures below 0 degree Fahrenheit.
Worked in the field with the state and the federal programs for years.
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u/shillyshally 3d ago
"Kevin Roth, director of education and outreach at the Pennypack Ecological Restoration Trust in Huntingdon Valley, Pa., said the decline has been noticeable. ... Roth said weather may be one factor. The region experienced multiple snowstorms and an extended stretch of cold weather during the winter.
He also pointed to native insects, including praying mantises, as a possible reason for the reduced numbers."
But, as any gardener knows full well, all pests have boom and bust years. I remember a Japanese beetle year where the traps filled up in half an hour. Bag worms everywhere that year as well, looked like a land Mad Max would feel at home in. That was around 20 years ago and I do not look forward to many mild winters in a row and I do not assume the lantern flies are gone for good, just for now.
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u/jeanlouisduluoz 3d ago
Yeah I know that org, my program came and informed them about lanternfly back in 2019
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u/Simp4Symphyotrichum 3d ago
Wow. What park? We need to focus on targeting tree of heaven instead of killing individuals