Editor’s Note: This story by Claire Potter first appeared in the Valley News on Nov. 14.
SPRINGFIELD — Kelly Stettner has been on the lookout for a quarter-sized invasive insect whose delicately patterned wings burn a vivid red. But she never expected to find a dead spotted lanternfly at the bottom of a plastic pen cup as she cleaned her home office in Springfield.
“It’s so horribly pretty,” said Stettner, who leads a volunteer watershed protection group called the Black River Action Team. “Its foliage, its plumage, whatever you call it, I’d love to have a gown in that color — a coat and a matching handbag.”
The spotted lanternfly, a native of China, had established itself in Pennsylvania by the time it was first identified in 2014. The “nuisance pests” travel in large numbers and feed constantly because the sap they eat is so low in nutrients.
They excrete a goo, whose name, “honeydew,” belies just how disgusting it can be as it gathers on trees, cars and outdoor furniture — especially after a fluffy gray mold grows on the sugary deposits.
The spotted lanternfly kills some plants, such as grapevines. Typically, though, it only weakens its hosts, making them all the more vulnerable when another disease or pest strikes, said Piera Siegert, New Hampshire’s state entomologist. The insect “poses a serious economic threat to multiple U.S. industries, including viticulture, fruit trees, ornamentals and timber,” warns the USDA.
Neither Vermont nor New Hampshire has an established spotted lanternfly population — defined as a reproducing population that cannot be eradicated. But the pest is inching closer as state agencies try to ward it off.
Earlier this month, Stettner prompted a whodunit that entomologists could not crack when she reported her find on iNaturalist. They asked if she had bought anything from China; if she’d traveled to any hotspots; if she’d seen any sticky egg masses on plants; where she had bought the plants she’d planted along a stream bank earlier this year. But native plants from a nursery that sources locally didn’t seem to be a likely culprit.
“I’ve been racking my brain,” Stettner said. But to no avail.
Stettner’s find was not the only sighting that Vermont has investigated. In late fall 2020, an “alert citizen” spied a spotted lanternfly in a poinsettia at a grocery store, said Judy Rosovsky, Vermont’s state entomologist. In 2021, four dead spotted lanternflies were identified in the state. Three living ones caught a ride on a truck. They were promptly terminated, and a search did not reveal any others.
“It is a very good hitchhiker,” Rosovsky said. “We anticipate getting more reports like this as spotted lanternfly get closer to Vermont.” It has already spread to parts of Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York, among other states.
Across the border in New Hampshire, there were three sightings last year. A dead lanternfly arrived with a shipment of paving stones, while two living insects stowed away with nursery plants, said Siegert, who works with the New Hampshire Department of Agriculture, Markets & Food. Meanwhile, the agency worked with nurseries to find and eliminate more than 52 egg masses on imported plants.
They’re finding them on nursery plants because “we have a close working relationship with the nursery industry and they know what the things look like,” Siegert said. She is certain that they are also coming into the state on vehicles and other goods, but the agency doesn’t have a way to identify them as easily.
“It will likely be introduced,” she said. “The question is whether or not it can successfully establish in much of the state. The adults have a long time in the adult stage before they lay eggs, and they’re cold-sensitive.”
In a cold climate, they may freeze to death before they get the chance to lay any eggs. For now, she said there is a “low likelihood of establishment” in most of New Hampshire, with the best chance at survival in the southern parts of the state.
But with a warming climate, that could change.
“This fall, we had a very warm fall,” she said. “I would say that this fall there were parts of the state where the spotted lanternfly could get to the egg-laying state. The question is — was this fall an outlier?”
The spotted lanternfly also does best when it can lay its eggs on the “Tree of Heaven,” the resilient invasive tree best known for “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.” The Asian tree is not as prevalent in Vermont and New Hampshire as it is farther south, but the spotted lanternfly also likes other trees that hold their leaves late into the year, such as maples, Siegert said.
Both Vermont and New Hampshire are asking citizens to do their part to keep the spotted lanternfly out of the region. Pennsylvania and other infested states have launched citizen “squash it” campaigns to eradicate the pest. When traveling from a quarantined area, people should be sure to look over any vehicles or goods so that they can scrape off any eggs or hitchhikers.
State agencies also ask residents to report any sightings. The “egg masses” look like a “gray glob of mud” and typically are high up in a tree, Siegert said. As larvae, they are small and beetle-like, with bright white spots on small black bodies. As adults, they grow their all-too-beautiful brown, black and red wings.
