( Matt Rourke, File / AP Photo )
You're probably spotting - and maybe squishing - spotted lanternflies everywhere these days. Julie Urban, associate professor at Penn State's entomology department, explains what to do, and why the dire predictions of widespread destruction by the invasive species might not hold true -- with some notable exceptions.
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Arun: It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Welcome back everyone. I'm Arun Venugopal from the WNYC and Gothamist newsroom. Have you squished any spotted lanternflies yet? Last year, the call went out to protect the trees and farms by smashing as many of the bugs that first appeared in this country in the state of Pennsylvania after probably hitching a ride in a shipping container from Asia. New to this country and without any natural predators, we were urged to step in and to step on them.
This summer they're more prevalent than ever and there’s a lot more squishing going on. But while there's still plenty to be concerned about, we're also learning more about these insects and about what plants are most vulnerable to their attentions and which are less so. To hear the latest on this invasive species, we're joined by someone who's right at ground zero for the spotted lanternfly invasion. That would be Julie Urban, a research associate professor at Penn State's Entomology Department. Welcome to WNYC, Julie.
Julie: Thanks for having me.
Arun: Listeners we're going to take your questions for Julie Urban. Are you seeing more spotted lanternflies this summer where you are? Are you finding that they've damaged trees around you or maybe other plants? Are you doing anything to combat them like killing them? We'd love to hear from arborists as well, farmers, or landscapers who might have a wide range of encounters, but citizen bug squishers are welcome to call too. Tweet us @BrianLehrer or call us at 212 433 WNYC. That’s 212 433 9692. Julie Urban, can you describe the spotted lanternfly for us?
Julie: Yes. The spotted lanternfly in fact is not a fly at all. It's a plant hopper and the closest relative most folks are familiar with is the cicada. Their mouthparts are fused into a straw-like beak, and they'll insert that beak into plants and feed on the sap so specifically, the phloem that has all of the products of photosynthesis in it. This plant hopper is really unusual in a number of different ways, but one of the main ways that makes it so problematic is that it feeds on such a broad number of different host plants.
It'll pretty much feed on almost anything that's not a conifer. There's over 100 recorded host plant species that are present here in North America but basically, it has some preferences. Those preferences depend on the life stage of lanternfly. Earlier in its life stages when it's a little guy, little nymphs that can't fly, it has a much broader host range. You might have seen it in your community garden, you might see it on your roses, you might see it feeding on a lot of different things.
That host range tends to narrow as they grow up. As their fourth instars, little red guys you might be seeing now, they tend to feed instead of on herbaceous tissues, through woody plant tissues, and then as adults what you're seeing now, they still have a pretty broad host range. But some of their favorite foods unfortunately are grape vines, as well as an introduced invasive tree, tree of heaven.
Arun: They're native to China, correct?
Julie: Yes, China and Asia. They're unusual in laying their eggs on essentially anything, not only on what their offspring can feed on but even on human-made structures. We're pretty sure it came here on a pallet of stone, either on the pallet or the stone and that's how it got in prior to 2014.
Arun: Do you know if they've been causing the same damage over there, or do the native flora adapt to them in some manner, or they really known as invasive in China and the rest of Asia as well?
Julie: They're not as invasive in China. They have periodic outbreaks but there, they have all of the natural enemies, predators, pathogens, that have co-evolved with them and keep them in check. It's only when they get introduced into a new area where those other checks aren’t present, those other species aren't present that they can get out of control like we're seeing them here in the US.
Arun: The lanternfly panic, if you will, where did this originate?
Julie: Well, lanternfly was an invasive into South Korea in 2004. There it did its primary damage was to grapes, but also they reported that it damaged from direct feeding, that there was damage to tree fruits, stone fruit, timber, ornamentals in people's yards. That was our expectation and so when this showed up here, we sounded all of the alarm bells. That was our worst-case scenario, it's going to damage all of these different types of plants that we have and impact our industries.
What we've learned since then is that based on reports where we've seen damage and based on our understanding from plant physiologists who've looked at impacts of lanternfly feeding on different aspects of grape and tree fruit and ornamental physiology, that direct feeding, it’s a little bit better story than we really thought originally. That direct feeding only kills to date tree of heaven and grape vines. In terms of impacts on tree fruit, and your maples, and your ornamentals in your yards, to date, it's only more of a stressor. It won't outright kill them.
We're certainly concerned and keeping an eye on that because these lanternfly feeds on so many different things. As it moves into a new area, you can think of the trees and plants in that area like its salad bar. What it's going to choose depends upon where it's at. If all that's around are tree fruit, we're a little bit more concerned. But to date, it's not as bad as we thought in terms of it's not impacting these other industries. Also, in terms of timber and forests, we've observed and recorded that lanternfly feeds more on edges, and it doesn't really penetrate into the interior forest. It seems that the timber industry is really off the hook for this pest.
Arun: Listeners, are you seeing more spotted lanternflies this summer? What are you seeing and how are you responding? Are you squishing or are you just running away? Call us at 212 433 WNYC. That’s 212 433 9692. How far is the damage so far? Is it pretty much in the East Coast area around Pennsylvania?
Julie: Yes. Certainly, vineyards in Pennsylvania because they've been experiencing it the longest, have been the hardest hit. We're seeing a really heavy population, like a moving front moving into the vineyards in New Jersey so they're really feeling it. Down if you look, New York State IPM has a wonderful map that shows what counties are under quarantine. You can see it's certainly spreading in Virginia, but this is really the first year from my colleagues there. I understand is getting into vineyards in Virginia. But also with Maryland and whatnot, again it's spreading.
What we know even though it's popped up in the Finger Lakes region of New York, it is not established there yet so it’s not in those vineyards. It's not in the vineyards in the Erie region in Pennsylvania, and it's not in the vineyards in Long Island. This is why the Stomp It Campaign, the alternative to stomping it is that you're going to carry it with you when you visit these beautiful areas. That's why stomping it and really being aware that you're not transporting it is so important, especially for New Yorkers to help those vineyards and keep it out of the Finger Lakes and out of Long Island.
Arun: Well, let's take a call right now. We have Howard calling from Montclair. Hi, Howard, you have a question or something to say about your interactions with lanternflies?
Howard: Yes, I've seen a lot of them this year. I didn't see them at all last year, except, I forget, near Lake Hopatcong, I saw one but now they're all over my roses. I have a grape arbor and they're all over those. What seemed to work was the grapes have some black rot and I'm spraying some antifungal spray. I sprayed a lot of it on where I saw a lot of Chinese lanternflies and that seemed to work. Of course, I stepped on them after they fell to the ground, but that's the only way you really know, but I left one there and it seemed to die. But I slowly saturated them with the antifungal spray.
Arun: Are you’re spending a lot of time Howard--?
Howard: [unintelligible 00:09:19] be fine-- huh?
Arun: Are you spending a lot of time out there being vigilant?
Howard: Well, yes and no. Sometimes I go out there because I have the black rot and cut away some leaves and get rid of the bad grapes, but no, I have not been diligent in the past couple of weeks.
Arun: You had a question for Julie. Yes?
Howard: Yes. I wonder if she knows anything that works to get them and what's the sign of them attacking. It seems like on my roses, they attack the leaves.
Julie: Yes.
Howard: Yes, my roses are decimated this year, it’s because of that.
Julie: From lanternfly? Because this would be the first that we've heard that that would be enough feeding. Did you have a lot of nymphs on them? The little guys that don't have weight wing--
Howard: A lot of what?
Julie: A lot of the earlier stages of lanternfly, the little black guys with the white spots. Cause that's typically--
Howard: Yes, how I first saw them on the roses, a bunch of black-- and I wasn't sure what they were, but I put them in a coffee can I had outside and I just filled it with water and closed the top. Then I looked it up on the internet and said, “Oh, that's the Chinese lanternfly.” Baby ones, black with white spots.
Julie: That's interesting because really that's the first report I've ever heard of lanternfly killing, especially the nymphs, or a lanternfly feeding to be sufficient to really kill off any roses. Because typically, they might hang out on a herbaceous plant for a few days and they move on to other things but actually, maybe not in this case so I will keep note of that. But basically, because they move around, usually they distribute their damage, especially as the earlier instars.
I think that's good that you're keeping an eye on your grapes. While we haven't noticed that fungicide, like the active ingredients in fungicide will kill them, probably the other compounds in that formulation might block their breathing holes and that kind of thing. We joke almost that harsh language will kill these insects. A lot of different things will kill them. It's just keeping up with the numbers as new ones move in is really where we see a problem.
That's good that you're keeping up on it, but also, what I would just warn you and other folks is that in terms of the biology of spotted lanternfly, they're freaks even among plant hoppers. Being in this adult stage for so long, we have adults that emerge now in July, but they really don't mate and lay eggs until September and October and November. When that happens, generally they need to be really feed to fatten up. You're seeing a lot of lanternfly now, but keep an eye out for the first couple of weeks of September, because that's when they really need to feed heavily and we see them move into new areas. If you can control your lanternfly on your grapes right now, go back and check them in September because you might have some new lanternfly there to deal with.
Arun: Thank you, Howard, from Montclair. Now let's listen to Mitchell from Manhattan. Hi Mitchell.
Mitchell: Hi. How are you?
Arun: Great. Where have you seen lanternflies?
Mitchell: Well, I started seeing them last year on East 25th Street between Second and Third Avenue. One day while I was dealing with something called alternate side of the street parking, when they have the mechanical brooms come through and I'm there for an hour and a half. I saw this beautiful insect and sure enough, it was the lanternfly that I saw, how should I say, with a notification on the news. They asked us to call into a 311 system, which is a citywide system where you can dial in and tell them about things that you've seen going on in the city.
Of course, I followed the advice and squished the bug and I see them again this year. There's some ginkgo trees on the block, there’s some, I guess they're ornamental pear trees and a couple of other varieties. One of the buildings has a very decorative floral garden but I don't see that many. You just see one here, one there, but we squish them.
Arun: Was that satisfying Mitchell?
Mitchell: I'm sorry?
Arun: Was it satisfying to squish them doing your civic duty?
Mitchell: No, actually, it wasn't satisfying them because they're beautiful creatures. Of course, my civic duty took over and I thought rather than see them infest the area, I just followed the instructions that I was given through TV news and I just saw them again. I didn't see many, but one here, one there. Interesting. I remember last season, the one that I spotted first was clung to a doorway, a metal frame on a doorway. I didn't understand that, but maybe there was something on the doorway they were interested in.
Arun: Thank you, Mitchell. Julie, these are rather-- they're very pretty, these insects, aren't they?
Julie: I spend my life studying them and related insects. Yes. I think they're very beautiful biologically. They're really interesting. I think if folks-- I appreciate Howard that you did your civic duty. That's very important, but another way you could kill them, if folks don't feel comfortable squishing them, if that feels a little bit too violent, basically, you could scoop them into a coffee cup or anything. When they escape from you, they jump up. Put the cup or whatever you're trying to catch them in above them and you can catch a bunch that way, and put them in your freezer, and they'll die in your freezer. That's an alternative way to do it if you don't want to squish.
Arun: Let's take a caller from Brooklyn. Hi, Reggie. You're on the air. What's your experience with lanternflies?
Reggie: Hey, so I live in Brooklyn and I have a garden. I started seeing them around last year and this year. They’re there in much greater numbers. Actually, last week I was out in Rockaway and the beach was covered. The shoreline of the water was full of all these dead lanternflies. My question is, is it really realistic to think that just by squashing these adult flies when we see them, that that's going to take care of the problem? I've dealt with so many pests in my garden over the last few years and it's like that hasn't worked for anything. You always have to like attack the whole life cycle if you're really going to eradicate these pests.
Julie: I am so glad you asked that question because no, that's not fully-- that's not the full management plan. I think that basically, it's really important as I said to do your part and for everybody to take ownership because these insects are found in so many different habitats and landscapes. They don't just stay in agricultural areas so we have to hit them where we can and how we can.
That Stomp It Campaign is also about awareness. The alternative, as I said before to stomping is to potentially move it and we don't want to move it. There is so much work that's being done in New York State, particularly by New York Ag & Markets in collaboration with a lot of other folks. Departments of Agriculture across the whole country are dealing with this. There's very sophisticated management plans going on that are hitting all the different life stages. Really, because of what we're seeing in numbers, what they're really focused on is keeping them out of ports, keeping them away from airports, places where they can really transport and get across the country.
Reggie: Got it.
Julie: There's a lot of management going on. There's a lot of research going on. Basically, what we're trying to do is to keep them from spreading as much as we can, especially into areas that are going to get impacted economically.
Arun: Julie, we have to leave it there. Thank you so much.
Julie: All right.
Arun: Julie Urban, research associate professor at Penn State’s Entomology Department. That's it for The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Thanks for listening.
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