Invasive spotted lanternflies found in northern Indiana
INDIANAPOLIS (CBS) -- A tiny pest is creating big problems in northern Indiana.
The Indiana Department of Natural Resources confirmed the spotted lanternfly has been found in Elkhart, Porter, and St. Joseph counties – next to railroad lines through Chesterton, Elkhart, and Mishawaka.
This is not the first time the spotted lanternfly has appeared in Indiana – though it is for this particular region. The invasive insect was found in 2021 in Switzerland County in southeast Indiana, and in 2022 in Huntington County in northeast Indiana.
In September, the Illinois Department of Agriculture confirmed that the spotted lanternfly (Lycorma deliculata) had appeared in Illinois for the first time. Officials at the time were quoted as saying the insect was found in the Fuller Park neighborhood on the South Side, and a Chicago subreddit user also reported finding a dead spotted lanternfly at Broadway and Briar Place in East Lakeview.
The spotted lanternfly is an invasive plant hopper native to China. It was first spotted in southeast Pennsylvania in September 2014 and spread throughout the East Coast.
"It's hard to tell exactly how they got here. The best we can say is that they came on imports and imported stone products," Scott Schirmer of the Illinois Department of Agriculture told CBS 2's Jim Williams and Marie Saavedra last month. "So as a lot of these invasive species get into the United States from overseas, it gets on imports and materials and products moving into the country."
The insects with their bright red underwings are visually striking at first glance. But they are no friends of ours.
"Being a non-native species, they don't belong here," Schirmer said. "There's nothing that's here that keeps them in check and keeps their populations down, so without having any of those biological controls in place, they can really run rampant, build their populations up, and live in populations that are almost overwhelming in the environment."
Spotted lanternflies can feed on and kill around 70 types of trees and plants – including grapes, apples, hops, walnuts, and hardwood trees. The insects make the plants too weak to survive in the winter.
CBS 2 in New York noted that there are now serious concerns about the vineyards in the winemaking regions of Long Island, the Hudson Valley, and the Finger Lakes in upstate New York.
But officials said in Illinois, they do not expect spotted lanternfly to become a crop-destroying pest.
Officials spotted lanternflies are to be stomped dead. Nymphs and adults should be squished, while egg masses should be scraped into containers of hand sanitizer or rubbing alcohol. But the Illinois Department of Agriculture wants people to take photos first and make reports.
Anyone who spots a spotted lanternfly should report it to lanternfly@illinois.edu. Photos are needed to verify a report and should be taken before killing the insects.
