Stranger in a Strange Land: Arrival of the Spotted Lanternfly in Pennsylvania

By Niki Tier

May 7, 2021

The year 2020 has brought upon profound changes to our everyday lives. Within the context of a global pandemic, there are parallels between the consequences of biological invaders and our changing climate. Similarly to the coronavirus, insect invaders can incite quarantines, intense contact tracing, and economic destruction. A particular invasive species quickly damaging Pennsylvania's ecosystem, the Spotted Lanternfly, is destroying the livelihood of many small farmers in the state.

The Spotted Lanternfly steals from science fiction novels; its beautiful, black spotted wings with a deep red center are alien-like, it multiplies at dangerous rates, and it appears suddenly with little notice, unimpeded by natural predators. The beauty of the lanternfly is in stark contrast to the destruction that it causes to the environment—the sap on its mouth, which transfers to the tree during feeding, leads to destructive mold growth on the outer bark and the feeding also weakens the tree’s defenses which causes it to be susceptible to other maladies. The insect feeds on trees and other plant life, crippling balanced native ecosystems and destroying important agricultural crops. These eye catching, red creatures look out-of-place against the green landscape of Pennsylvania: the longer they stay, the less green Pennsylvania will be.

Originally from eastern Asia, the Spotted Lanternfly has quickly spread throughout eastern Pennsylvania since its first sighting in 2014. The insect’s rapid spread is especially threatening because the rural populations concentrated in eastern Pennsylvania depend on agriculture for income. Having already spread to New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and Delaware and showing no signs of slowing, the Lanternfly presents a threat that for which most states are not prepared. Luckily, Pennsylvania can serve as an example to ill-prepared states of what the government and individual property owners can do to effectively stop the spread of the Lanternflies, but the necessity of state-level responses brings with it new challenges as well. 

Norman Schultz—a manager of Linvilla Orchard, a small, family-owned orchard in Media, Pennsylvania—is one of the many people affected by this invasive species. Lanternflies have already impacted his business and also threaten his future plans for the orchard, which specializes in pick-your-own vegetables and fruits. The orchard also houses a farm market and garden center. According to Schultz, the Lanternflies first appeared last year but have drastically increased since then. Schultz spoke to his worry about the future of the orchard as the Lanternfly situation worsens: “We heard about them a few years ago, and we are concerned about them. Winemaking is something on our 10 year plan, which has caused us to pause on going forward with that project. We do have Concord grapes, and we saw the Lanternfly in there a little bit last year, but this year they probably increased fifty-fold. Last year there were only a few, so we worked with the state to start controlling them, but even with the control measures in place you're seeing them almost non-stop from July until [October].”

According to Schultz, the lanternflies feed primarily on the Ailanthus altissima, also known as the Tree of Heaven, a striking tree with vibrant green colors. Referencing a conversation with a state inspector, Schultz says, “I was questioning her and she said that they are finding that the population in Berks County, where it started, is actually going down because they think they have killed the Ailanthus. And instead of attacking other crops, they’re just moving to a wider circle...her perspective is that they're moving out.” This means that the Lanternflies have the capacity to completely decimate a population of trees and then move to a different region to repeat this dangerous cycle.

Expressing his fears for the future of the orchard, Schultz laments both the ecological and financial threat at hand. “We see the tree actually dying from it. So far there hasn't been an economic impact, but we are concerned about what will they move to next. How will the grapes rebound after all the feeding on them this year? If the Tree of Heaven, Ailanthus, trees die, what tree are they moving to next? Are they going to move to a fruit tree or another deciduous? We're not sure,” Schultz says.

This uncertainty about the future is something that Pennsylvanian farmers and farmers in other states have felt before. This is not the first time invasive species have directly threatened the livelihood of agricultural workers. Schultz remembers a Plum Pox virus outbreak in Pennsylvania from 15 to 18 years ago. This virus completely eradicated the growth of peaches in the state of Delaware years before. He compared these instances and recalled the state responding swiftly and even inspecting his property. Because Linvilla Orchards has seen the consequences of similar situations before, its employees take invasive species very seriously. Experiences with these unwanted invaders gives Pennsylvania an advantage. However, the Lanternflies are reproducing at fast rates and its quick spread leads to the question of whether or not other states are as ready as Pennsylvania to fight against the insect.

Federal aid and government response have been critical in fighting against the Lanternfly. Schultz explains some of the aid that he and the orchard had received thus far: “[The state inspectors] more or less identified all Ailanthus on the property. When the insects would feed on that tree, they would die from feeding on it because it was injected with an insecticide.We think we've definitely done our part to help control it right in our immediate area. It's just such an expensive program.”

In response to whether or not the state has done enough to combat the Lanternfly, Schultz says, “the government has its place, and this is where they should be investing their interest. This is just such a quick moving insect right now. Time will tell how the resources can be spent. Once you start losing your livelihood, then you want more support, but to have the answers to these big problems, myself being a manager, I know it's not an easy task. I hope it’s the right people making the right decisions, but that's not my decision to make.” It seems as though the issue may be bigger than the resources the government has available considering the amount of money required to investigate and track each Lanternfly outbreak. Ensuring the removal of Lanternflies is an expensive and arduous task; However, state agencies and landowners need to ask the question: are the money and expenses worth it in the long run to ensure the eradication of the Lanternfly?

Shannon Powers, the Press Secretary of the Pennsylvania State of Agriculture, offers one perspective on this question. Powers emphasizes that the Lanternflies influence more than just the agriculture sector. “They can threaten the food economy, outdoor dining, and entertainment, things well well beyond agriculture. It hinders your enjoyment of the outdoors,” Powers says. The crippling damage that the Lanternfly has inflicted upon human environments explains Pennsylvania’s timely and nuanced response. 

Powers explains that in early 2020, the state and federal government invested over 31 million dollars in Pennsylvania for control research and to establish a Lanternfly hotline, which allows anyone to report Lanternfly sightings. “We follow up by sending out a team that surveys the area and confirms whether or not it's Spotted Lanternfly and treats it accordingly. We don't treat every homeowner's property, but we certainly educate people on what to do on their own property to treat it without harming the environment or having other unintended effects,” Powers says. In conjunction with the hotline, Lanternfly control work is a strategy of the state’s Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Agriculture in collaboration with Pennsylvania State University to further research and educational outreach on the lanternfly. Though some funding came from federal and private sources, money came in great part from the state in the form of the Pennsylvania farm bill. “Pennsylvania passed our own farm bill last year, devoting $3 million dollars to rapid response for agricultural emergencies,” Powers says. 

Powers describes an essential yet surprising method of quarantining the Lanternfly: spreading awareness that Lanternflies are dangerous hitchhikers. The transportation industry is another industry impacted by the spread of this invasive species. Lanternflies do not primarily travel by flight, but instead hitchhike, which puts the transportation industry at high risk for spreading the species, especially in a state with high levels of tourism and commerce like Pennsylvania, according to Powers “It's an appealing place to do business, but that also means lots of people are visiting here. We need them to be aware that they need to look at their vehicles before they leave so that they don't take the Spotted Lanternfly home with them,” Powers says.

As for treatment, Powers states that the state has treated “high impact areas,” which are zones most likely to cause further spread. These areas include highways, insterstates, trucking centers, and  as such, this treatment has an impact on transportation workers. Powers explains: “we have issued upwards of a million permits, and that permit system basically consists of your company getting a permit. They go online, take a course and demonstrate that they know how to inspect for Spotted Lanternflies.”

Powers believes that the issue of awareness and understanding why the insect is so dangerous is the most important aspects of slowing Lanternfly spread. “Engaging kids and families, and checking their properties, looking for egg masses and getting rid of them...really engaging the public and recognizing this insect as something you really want to get rid of. It affects the way you live outdoors.”

Powers’s focus on education has had a direct correlation with the number of homeowners in Pennsylvania who have taken action in preventing the spread of Lanternflies, like Sharon Wojcik, a homeowner from Montgomery County, PA. Discussing the methods she uses to protect her trees from the species, she states that in April, when the Lanternflies were just hatched, she wanted to stay away from pesticides and other chemicals. Instead, she resorted to putting tape around the trees in her yard which would effectively trap and kill the larvae.

With excitement, Wojcik explains the industrious ways landowners have been handling the Lanternfly arrival. “We had heard that applying double-sided tape or doing it with the sticky side out would capture them and sure enough it did! Within a few hours of applying the tape, we saw literally thousands of captured bugs, which just emphasizes how many babies they can produce. It was difficult being outside this summer with the Lanternflies landing and jumping on us, and especially now in the Fall, where the grown up bugs are around even more. Our patio is filled with them and requires sweeping several times a week,” Wojcik says. She continued, explaining that she also went around scraping off the egg sacks on the trees and placing them in a bag with rubbing alcohol in order to kill them. Next year, she plans to do this same procedure earlier to kill the eggs before they hatch, preceding the season’s first wave. Wojcik’s experience exemplifies the important role that every member of society plays in reducing the Lanternfly population and illustrates that the species is not just negatively impacting farmers, but homeowners.

Communities impacted by the Lanternflies have been working hard to do their part in preventing their spread. Trees with tape around them, as Wojcik has employed to catch and kill the flies, have become ubiquitous. While walking on trails, people comically go out of their way to step and kill the flies. The trails are littered with squashed Lanternflies, demonstrating that the community is willing to fight for the safety of our trees. Every Lanternfly killed prevents subsequent populations of flies from doing more ecologically lethal damage.

Some homeowners often incorrectly assume that the issue of the Spotted Lanternfly is outside their control. As seen in Pennsylvania and in Berks County, specifically, individual people have a place in controlling invasive species outbreak. As the Lanternfly spreads, it is more important now than ever that landowners, agricultural workers, and state employees alike, are educated and aware of the threat to the trees and agriculture.

There is also an important relationship between farmers and the federal government around this issue. Because Pennsylvania has such a strong agricultural history with invasive species that the infrastructure to defend against the Lanternflies is well-established. Evidence of this is seen through Powers’s comprehensive list of what has been done so far by the state and federal governments. The concern lies with the threat that the Lanternflies will spread to other states that are less dependent on farming and whether those states will be able to combat the Lanternfly effectively. It is important to note that there is still a lot of unknown concerning the containment of the Spotted Lanternfly. The only way to truly measure the effectiveness of the protocol and the implemented quarantine in Pennsylvania will be time.

The Lanternfly threatens to devastate the agricultural sector of states it has invaded. While Linvilla Orchards is just one example, many other farms have had their future plans compromised due to the invasion of Lanternflies and have lost revenue. There is a role for both the average citizen and the government in controlling this invasive and deadly species. States have a precedent and a procedure in dealing with Lanternflies because they are not the first invasive species to completely devastate a population in a given area, and they will certainly not be the last. There must be an overlap between individual citizens and the government to ensure that Pennsylvania still has its trademark orchards and beautiful trees next fall.