Spotted lanternfly is making itself known across the Commonwealth, but there are still many places that are free from this pest. As adults, they are in their largest and most visible stage, and if you haven’t yet been introduced, now is the best time to get familiar so you know what to look for!

What is Spotted Lanternfly?

• Spotted lanternfly is a plant-hopper insect that has a straw-like protrusion for a mouth, and uses the protrusion to stab into a plant or tree to suck out and feed on the sap. Adult spotted lanternfly are between 1 and 1 ½ inches long, mostly brown in color, but with bright red underwings that are hidden unless in flight. They are excellent jumpers, easily leaping more than 6 feet in a single bound to escape predators and shoe treads, and can then glide away to safety. When they land, they have six strong legs that are able to grip and hold on tightly, whether that’s a tree, your clothes or onto a vehicle. While spotted lanternfly are harmful to trees, they do not bite or sting people or pets.

Where do Spotted Lanternfly live?

• Spotted lanternfly particularly like ‘disturbed areas’. Think of a ‘disturbed area’ as a place where the forest was cut back, like along a highway or at the edges of parking lots, and where fast-growing, non-native plants and trees grew back. The spotted lanternfly’s preferred host, Tree-of-Heaven (Ailanthus altissima) is one of those fast growing, non-native plants that will quickly overwhelm and out-compete native plants in these disturbed areas. Because spotted lanternfly is an excellent hitchhiker (they can hold onto vehicles at highway speeds), and disturbed areas along roadways and parking lots are places where traffic tends to slow down or stop, spotted lanternfly will hop off to find a nice meal in these disturbed areas, and can quickly build a population there.

How do we stop Spotted Lanternfly spreading?

• The next article explains what to do if you have spotted lanternfly on your property, but the single best way to slow their spread to new areas is to ‘Look Before You Leave’. As noted above, lanternfly are capable of holding onto your vehicle to travel with you wherever you go. By taking just a few minutes to inspect your vehicle, you can ensure you aren’t taking them somewhere else!

Can businesses help?

• Absolutely! Businesses that have vehicles that travel within areas known to have spotted lanternfly are required to obtain a free permit and train their employees on what to look for. Because business vehicles make many stops in many places, it’s important to inspect the vehicle often.

When you get your spotted lanternfly business permit, you're building a partnership with the PA Department of Agriculture & Penn State University and Extension. You'll learn how important having a permit is and how to mitigate the risks of spreading these bad bugs. You're also protecting your vendors, suppliers, and other industry partnerships you have when you're permitted.

Check out our latest Spotted Lanternfly Business Toolkit that provides helpful information, a decision tree to see if you need a permit, what to do next, and checklists and inspection logs ready to go for your convenience!

Use the Tool Kit Now:

Above: Adult spotted lanternfly gather on an Ailanthus tree near a circle trap. The invasive insect will climb the tree to feed, fall out when it’s full, and then climb back up several times a day. The circle trap intercepts them during this process, funneling and capturing them as they climb back up.

Battling the invasive spotted lanternfly will take an ‘all hands on deck’ approach. To more effectively control and limit the spread of this invasive bug, these are three practices that will help everyone: control lanternfly on your property; inspect your vehicle before you leave to ensure you aren’t taking lanternfly with you; and report lanternfly when and where you see them. 

Controlling spotted lanternfly on your property can include using circle traps on trees to capture the invasive insect as they move up and down the tree throughout the day to feed, and can also include the careful use of pesticides. Smashing and scraping remain useful tools to controlling lanternfly on your property and are an important part of the pest management solution.

Look before you leave your property to ensure you aren’t transporting spotted lanternfly with you to a new area. Take time to inspect different hiding spots on your vehicle, including front and rear bumpers, wheel wells, windshield wiper recess between the hood and windshield, and depending on your vehicle types, places like rear spoilers, roof racks, and truck beds. Similarly, if you are towing a camper or trailer, check over similar areas where wind resistance is lower. Likewise, if there are items you are transporting that are generally outside, things like grills or patio furniture, be sure to inspect them before you load and move them.

Report what you’re seeing, both around your home and the places you visit. Reporting aids the PA Department of Agriculture by alerting us to new, potentially unknown locations where spotted lanternfly have recently moved in, and also tells a story of where spotted lanternfly has been and where it’s going. These insights from the public guide the PA Department of Agriculture and our partners to more effectively keep this invasive pest in check!

PA Department of Agriculture staff demonstrate contact sprays to control spotted lanternfly.

Earlier this year, PA Department of Agriculture (PDA) Spotted Lanternfly Staff began using a new treatment method, called contact spraying. Licensed applicators from PDA apply contact insecticides by spraying tree lines where spotted lanternfly are heavily concentrated. These contact spray operations are focused during specific time windows at limited-access locations, such as along rail and transportation rights-of-way, to both suppress those populations and limit spotted lanternfly hitchhiking their way to new areas. So how is this new process going?

We’re excited to report that we have seen excellent results in multiple locations across the Commonwealth, with the number of spotted lanternfly seen in both visual and circle trapping surveys plummeting and staying low since the first spray. PDA continues to monitor sites like these throughout the season, timing the contact sprays with new life stages and utilizing other integrated pest management options like systemic pesticide treatments on spotted lanternfly’s preferred host Tree-of-Heaven to keep their numbers down.  

Teams of researchers, including Penn State’s Center for Pollinator Research, continue to field test the most effective insecticides to control spotted lanternfly populations, as well as assessing impacts on non-target organisms including pollinators such as bees and flies. For more information on the research, visit: Blue Marsh Lake Area Spotted Lanternfly Research, 2021 Frequently Asked Questions (psu.edu) 

As adult spotted lanternfly are appearing across the state, and with egg mass laying season just a few weeks away, it remains imperative that Commonwealth citizens follow the three keys to dealing with spotted lanternfly: control the insect on your property; look before you leave; and report when and where you find it!  

PA Department of Agriculture’s Michael Panuschka discusses identification and signs of spotted lanternfly with North Carolina Agriculture staff.

While many Pennsylvanians have been living with spotted lanternfly for some time now, our neighboring states are just beginning to see these invasive insects creep across their borders. The PA Department of Agriculture has been partnering with staff from many of our neighboring state agencies, and recently a team from North Carolina visited to learn how PDA staff work to battle this bug.

 The visit occurred in late July, and together the North Carolina and PDA teams worked together to treat properties with spotted lanternfly, giving the North Carolina team ample practice on the various treatment methods we employ. While no spotted lanternfly have yet been found in their state, the training will help prepare them should any of the sneaky pests make their way to them.