The dreaded spotted lanternfly will soon return to menace anyone outdoors across most of the state, but there is still time to prepare for the rapidly spreading pests.
According to Ellen Roane, arborist with Harrisburg’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Facilities, the region will see young lanternflies start to be active in late April and early May — which gives us about a month to prepare traps.
“The insects have a tendency to drop out of the tree and then crawl back up the trunk,” Roane said as she put in place a heavy-duty flypaper roll around one tree at Italian Lake in Harrisburg. “As they crawl back up the trunk, they get stuck on this.”
The insects have spread across the central Pennsylvania region in recent years. While they are no threat to humans, Roane said that they can be a threat to certain plants they feed on, particularly grape vines and apple trees. This is in addition to the sticky honeydew residue they leave after feeding, which itself can attract sooty mold.
Among the city’s parks, places like Italian Lake and Reservoir Park are among the most affected by the insect, Roane said. But they can thrive nearly anywhere that the tree of heaven can be found — itself an invasive species of weed. The relatively fast-growing and rapidly-spreading tree species is the lanternfly’s favorite food.
For anyone who wants to do their part and protect their own trees from spotted lanternflies, Roane suggests attaching a strip of heavy-duty fly paper around the trunk of a tree, such as these products which can be purchased on Amazon.com.
Smaller, standard-sized fly paper won’t do the job, Roane said, though the best approach with the larger rolls is to cut them in half to make a thinner band — around six inches across will do. Then, to ensure that squirrels or other animals don’t get caught, the flypaper should be covered with a mesh window screen.
Roane explained that the length of the window screen should be about twice the amount necessary to wrap around the tree, so that it can be crimped at the top and attached to the tree with thumbtacks or push pins, secured above the fly paper and extended over it like a skirt.
This setup will allow the screen space so that it doesn’t touch the fly paper and stick. Instead, it will stick out from the tree and still allow squirrels to climb across it, but the smaller lanternflies will climb directly onto the flypaper as they go up the tree.
“You’ll need to change the paper periodically, because it will get full,” Roane said. “I’ve come out and seen them completely covered.”
The egg clusters can already be seen on many trees, and while destroying them before they hatch can be effective, they can often be high enough to be difficult to reach.
This style of trap works best in the spring and early summer, Roane said, with the youngest stages of lanternflies. The fully grown adults are large and strong enough to jump free from the fly paper, though they can still be trapped with the more complicated circle traps.
