![]() “Spotted lanternflies are prolific,” says Powers. Often, the lanternfly will lay eggs at inaccessible heights, so be prepared to get out your ladder and flashlight. If you need more information, Penn State has provided a step-by-step instructional video. (Pimple-popping aficionados, rejoice - you just found your new favorite activity.)Įither way you choose, make sure to be thorough: Any eggs that fall to the ground can still hatch in the spring. ![]() Use your shoe, use a shovel - just take care to get each egg. Once you’ve scraped the mass off a surface with a plastic card or putty knife, just smash the entire thing. That’s certainly one option - the high alcohol content kills the eggs - but both products can be hard to find these days. You may have heard that to destroy the eggs, you need to dispose of them in a sealed bag or container filled with rubbing alcohol or hand sanitizer. You can file a report online, or call the university’s spotted lanternfly hotline, 88. Report the sighting to Penn State, which is in the process of carrying out research essential to identifying both the spread of lanternflies and the areas most impacted by their growth. Often, there will be multiple egg masses on a single tree. When uncovered (meaning the lanternfly was scared away before she could finish the job), they tend to be lighter in color, and you may be able to see individual pencil-tip-size eggs lined up in a row. The masses differ in appearance, but if you see an odd brown crust about 1.5 inches long on the bark of your tree or another stationary outdoor object - it can sometimes look like gray or taupe chewing gum - it’s likely a group of covered lanternfly eggs. These are the lanternfly eggs, and each grouping could hatch up to 50 spotted lanternflies come springtime. ![]() Photos by Heather Leach.Įggs take the form of light brown and yellowish masses stuck to the sides of trees, houses, telephone poles and even cars. This array from Penn State shows how egg masses present. Over the winter, researchers with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture and Penn State - who together are leading the effort to contain and decrease the spotted lanternfly population - will analyze the reported-sightings data and create predictive models for the spread of the insect.īut Shannon Powers, press secretary for the department, believes we’re on track to avoid the worst-case scenario: a statewide spread and the mass destruction of trees, not to mention major economic loss - thanks in no small part to the carpet of lanternfly carcasses visible in some parts of the region. “Any dead spotted lanternfly reduces the potential for spread next season, so death equals success,” says Powers. It’s too soon to tell whether the hard work made a dent in their ranks. And in a fit of civic duty, we spent the summer chasing the offending insects down and stomping them to death. ![]() We were dive-bombed on our way to the park. We saw them resting on our trees, cars and sidewalks. This year, spotted lanternflies were everywhere. Here’s how to destroy spotted lanternfly eggs. Spotted lanternflies will die off after a hard freeze, but their eggs remain.
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