We are seeing adults on our property, but not in great numbers. Just enough to know they are around (at about the same level as stink bugs in the fall/spring).
We killed 100’s of nymphs this spring in and around the vegetable garden, but in the wooded overgrown area behind the house there must have been 10,000’s
TW
I am really surprised that I am not seeing more. When bird watching, I see a lot high up through binoculars but we are not seeing near the level of nymphs we saw. Lots of isolated reports of flycatchers starting to eat them. It would be great if they had a natural predator.
They’ve taken over a bit here…started with one or two localized spots but now all over the place
And just like that, my laternflies are all but gone. They weren’t nearly as bad I thought they’d be, as per my upthread post, they never blackened the sky like I was supposing.
But, enter the stink bugs for the fall… I had about 100 on my back deck last night.
TW
They’re all over the place here in the western suburbs of Philly.
I agree that they weren’t as bad as expected but we still have them and the last two days were the worst in a few weeks. Good news is they have stayed high up and haven’t been a real nuisance on the patio since they became adults.
Based on random biking observations…Lanternflies appear to have spread further and are less likely to appear in the concentrated waves that they were. At their peak locally, you couldn’t go more than 10 - 20 feet without seeing one or more on the road…every road. Infestation level. I never saw that this year, not to say it didn’t happen in some places.
Unfortunately, they’ve filled back in locally, a good bit more than the past 2 years…maybe 3x - 5x the numbers locally, which is still a fraction (10%?) of the peak. I was fairly surprised to see them near Bedminster, NJ. That’s 50+ miles from the source and < 40 miles from NYC. Unfortunately…they’re going to spread throughout NJ, in to NYC and beyond. Probably just a matter of 1, 2 or 3 years.
RT
I am in the Morristown NJ area and have not seen them locally. However, the family and I ventured up to Hacklebarney State Park in Long Valley NJ, which is north of Bedminster and directly West from us, and there were plenty to be seen. Had a couple fly on us as well, they don’t seem to be very shy.
We stopped by the Hacklebarney Farm / Cider Mill on the way out and we chatted with the Orchard manager there, who was ironically feeding downed lanternflies to the chickens in the coop. He mentioned that, while annoying, they haven’t impacted the crop on his farm, which consists mainly of Apples, pumpkins, corn, etc. He mentioned the NJ wineries were having a harder time preparing/dealing with them as they have a fondness to the grape vines.
Interesting day nonetheless.
Very consistent story here too that I’ve heard from a couple of local farmers and orchard growers.
RT
We’re the town just to the north of Bedminster in NJ (so stop by next time RT!) They showed up here this year for the 1st time. We were shocked one night in Jun or July to see Hundreds of spotted lantern fly (SLF) nymphs crawling on the sycamore trees next to our composter. There’s a local tree company that does a ‘bark girdle’ spray with one of the Penn State Top 5 insecticides on trees that they suck the sap from - their fav is tree of heaven (we cut those down), fruit trees, and trees w smooth bark (easier to suck the sap out of apparently). We’ve seen lots of dead SLFs around the treated trees. Plus we have some cicadas and spiders that love those suckers. ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
There are so many farms around the area with Peach and now apple trees with the hard cider boom- not sure what they’re going to do but apparently In Nov after the SLFs lay egg masses on the trees, we’re supposed to go Around and scrape the egg masses off into buckets of bleach water to keep the population down. ![[bleh.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/c/cbb27a94fa73081862abf910a8bfa05e2ae2f5c3.gif "[bleh.gif]"){kind=small}
That climb up to Hacklebarney on Black River Road From Pottersville is one of my favorite but most dreaded climbs on the bike.
Didn’t make it quite that far. A buddy loves roads with the name “hollow” so we rode through High Bridge, Califon and Tewksbury: Buffalo Hollow, Guinea Hollow, Frog Hollow, Hollow Brook. Hill and Dale is a nice rolling road near you. Very close to Hacklebarney. I’ll see if the route can be tweaked to include Black River…but that’s a lot of miles (and hills) from Frenchtown. Such lovely roads and a beautiful area, connected by short and somewhat unavoidable sections of heavy traffic.
It looked like that area was close to the eastern edge of the Lanternfly expansion…but if you were seeing nymphs, the bugs have already spread a good bit further.
RT
I saw a seminar on this pest today. It’s coming to California and I’m terrified.
Seems like the Finger Lakes wine region is in the crosshairs next year and 2022. Adults and egg masses have been found near Ithaca. They’re also on the doorstep of NYC with sightings on Staten Island. Lanternflies prefer “Tree of Heaven” (Ailanthus) but grapevines are high on the list. Hopefully California and Oregon stay in the clear for at least several more years. Have there been West Coast sightings?
My understanding is that controls are evolving but so far it doesn’t seem like anything works well. Manual egg removal/destruction is pretty much sticking fingers in the leaking dike.
RT
A September CT Exp Ag Station press release mentions a population at the other end of my state in Greenwich…Yikes ! I do look for them on vineyard posts and vines. Still have a few “Tree of Heaven” saplings to get rid of. It’s not a matter of “if” and more a matter of “when”.