Problems on the east coast. I was in NJ during August and they’re everywhere.
CNBC: Spotted lanternflies are feasting on U.S. grapevines and putting vineyards at risk.
They are indeed everywhere. This is a lanternfly on the outside of the 102nd floor of One World Trade Center.
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Some eggs found on a shipment at an inspection station in California. Hard to imagine they will be able to prevent them all from getting in.
See Spotted Lanternfly? for more history.
It took a year or two, but the local fauna in PA/NJ started eating them which has brought their numbers way down. A concerted effort to chop down a lot of the tree of heavens helped too. Back in 2020 it seemed like a locust plague and there would hundreds in store doorways… but now you might see a few dozen on the sidewalk walking down a city block.
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Really trying to kill my grapes in Ohio:
They seem to laugh at neem oil. Anyone find something to kill them?
Won’t Carbaryl work or are you trying to avoid using it. It is about the only thing that works on Japanese beetles so use it when forced and it seems to kill everything.
Another alternative that I won’t use anymore is nicotine. You make a tea from chewing tobacco. I haven’t found anything that it won’t kill but it is really nasty. I don’t recommend it unless you have no other option.
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Looks like I’m going to have to try it. These things are nasty. Just thousands of them.
Yes, that was insane in NYC. I remember seeing swarms of them blow by our window on the 31st floor, swept up by breezes. The plaza around our tower was covered in them, largely squashed.
It was 2021, though, wasn’t it? Not during lockdown.
Is the fact that they’ve abated due to human efforts, or they one of those creatures that has cycles, like locusts?
Last year, I had the misfortune to be on the west side of the Hudson Valley at this time of year when the gypsy moth plague struck. I had a very intense allergic reaction to the larvae, which were about 1/8’ long and were thick in the air. Walmart was sold out of Benedryl lotion, so many people were reacting similarly.
my pandemic timelines are one big fog, so you could very well have been correct. although I am in Philly and I think we had the lanternflies a year before they came to new york.
They’re prevalent in central Maryland. My daughter’s next door neighbors in Baltimore had a huge tree that was lanternfly central. Their droppings made a sticky goo of everything. She gently suggested that since the tree looked 2/3 dead they should consider removing it. Too expensive… until a year later when it got knocked down in a storm.
Took out the neighbors power and my daughter’s cable service, damaged a fence, and totaled the neighbors’ car. Fortunately missed buildings and people. Lanternfly population almost entirely eliminated.
Yes, but by waiting, there was probably insurance coverage! 
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Ortho Bugclear works very well, but it’s the nuclear option. Kills all bug life. Last fall I did two sprays one week apart. Took care of about 95% of the adult lantern flies. Then i just went around with my whomping stick and stomping boots for daily maintenance.
This year the nymphs are all over the wild rose and tree of heaven. I read an article that said the only way to get rid of them is to remove all the Tree of Heaven. Next month a buddy and I are going to cut down a dozen trees of heaven. Hate to do it but they are invasive as well.
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The tree of heaven is in my neighbors yard. I did kill a bunch of them in the alley. Any chance the lanternflies will kill them?
Re: nicotine
I have seen 50# bags of nicotine dust in south side Virginia, to use as a garden insecticide like Sevin.
The lantern flies will not kill the tree of heaven. They are both native to China and lived in symbiosis. In China other animals keep the flies on check. Here in the US The lantern flies eat the sap of the tree of heaven which makes the flies unpalatable to our birds. Without the tree of heaven, the flies feed on other trees that don’t give them the acrid taste so birds will eat them then. The key is to minimize trees of heaven so the birds and mantises will eat the flies.
The only real solution today, that I’ve heard of, is to remove the trees of heaven.
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