You can start now to stop the spread of spotted lanternflies, experts say
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Now is a great time to get a head start on stopping the spread of spotted lanternflies.
It's been a while since we saw spotted lanternflies taking over Downtown Pittsburgh and many other areas in western Pennsylvania. That's because the adult ones died, but they left us some presents.
"This is a great time to look for egg masses and eliminate them," said Ellen Yerger, an associate professor at Indiana University of Pennsylvania in the biology department.
Lanternfly egg masses will hatch in the spring, but those egg masses are an easy target for removal. Yerger said these insects will lay their eggs on anything.
"You can look on the bark of trees, that's a good place to start. They also really like to lay it on rusty metal so the back of a sign, the underside of your car," Yerger said.
Yerger said the first step is to make sure you know what the invasive insects' egg masses look like. If you spot some, you can smash the eggs.
"You can just take something and just pop all the eggs. You can take a rock, the end of an old baseball bat, golf club, croquet mallet, anything you want," Yerger said.
"If you like the sensation of crackling plastic wrap, you'll love that snap, crackle, pop that comes from snapping spotted lanternfly eggs," said Amy Korman, horticulture extension educator with Penn State Extension.
If you don't want to smash the egg masses, you can scrape them off and destroy them.
"They can scrape those egg masses either into rubbing alcohol or hand sanitizer. Don't just scrape them and leave them on the ground because they'll hatch," said Sandy Feather, an educator with Penn State Extension
Korman and Feather said destroying a lanternfly egg mass eliminates around 35 eggs.
"It's a bad insect. It does really bad things to certain plants. ... We don't want to promote it or push it over to other places," Korman said.
They said the egg masses can get confused with spongy moth ones, but they're both bad insects so you can scrape them off too.
The experts will take any help they get to stop the spread of these unwanted trespassers.
"If you can kill the eggs, you've killed that whole next generation, so that really helps a lot," Yerger said.
Penn State Extension said the egg masses can also be treated with a high concentration of golden oil or be sprayed with bifenthrin.
You can report your spotted lanternfly egg find to Penn State Extension by calling 1-888-4BAD-FLY.