Coming to an orchard near you, The Spotted Lanternfly

i hope our cold winters keep them out of n. maine but didnt stop EAB from setting up shop! the fruit growers are haveing alot to deal with. bet many are going to grow other stuff, further pushing up the already high price of fruits.

Potentially good news:

Spotted lanternfly thwarted by two native fungi

Cornell-led research reports that two local fungal pathogens could potentially curb an invasive insect that has New York vineyard owners on edge.

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They need more than just the fungus. If one fungus kills 97% of lantern flies the remaining 3% can breed and their children are more likely to be immune. Have they looked into introducing a predator?

Iā€™m sure a host of existing predators are introducing themselves to the spotted lanternfly right now. After living through the BMSB scare Iā€™m more confident that the local predators will evolve to the new massive pile of food. For example

https://www.readingeagle.com/news/article/wasp-eyed-as-potential-enemy-of-spotted-lanternfly

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Oh lovely lantern fliesā€¦ just what I need in Perry at my orchard. :frowning: Anyone hear any reports of them in Perry, PA,?

Looks like you are not in the quarantine zone yet, next year. I still havenā€™t seen one.

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That is in the works with a couple species of parasitic wasps but it could take years to screen those species and make sure those wasps wouldnā€™t kill native species (or even put us in a worse position than SLF has).

As far as I know anything that eats SLF right now are generalist eaters and are not likely to have an appreciable impact (birds, preying mantis, etc.).

Thats exactly what they said about BMSB. Then two years later they were getting decimated here by something. I now am back to more of the green stinkbugs than BMSBs. So yes it could still be really bad but the existing predators can step up. For example the wasps in the above article. I personally found BMSBs infested by small wasps in my yard.

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@scottfsmith
Stink bugs have been a minor problem here that has left deep pits in a few pears.

Well I hope youā€™re right. Many of the experts Iā€™ve had a chance to talk to, who advised growers through the gypsy moth and BMSB scares, are spooked by this one.

Found several trees like this today while mowing. It smells like rotten, fermenting fruit when you get close the tree. Everything under the treeā€™s canopy is a sticky mess, the white stuff at the trunk is mold from all the sap that has fallen. :worried:


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Yikes! What type of tree and where are you located?

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Not sure of the tree type, looks similar to a tree-of-heaven but I do not think it is. They seem to be taking a liking to the Norway maples here, only ones Iā€™ve spotted in the orchard have been on my peaches, not in large quantity though.

Iā€™m in eastern PA, Northampton County.

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Ugh. Someone did some modeling predictions of the most probable range of spotted laternfly in the US. Looks like Iā€™m right on the edge of the predicted range of the darned thing.

Not peer-reviewed, so take with a grain of salt.

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I still see BMSB.

I think it might be mature TOH

Has that greyish tan cracked-bark look

That sap pooling is crazy

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Thatā€™s horrible. Iā€™ve so far found 1 nymph on an Asian pear and 1 adult on a persimmon this year. Both were sprayed with Sevin and leaped away, hopefully to their death. I hope to never have a scene like that in my yard (Lancaster, PA).

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After looking at those pictures I believe you are correct. Iā€™ll have to add that to my list of trees to removeā€¦

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Look for these guys, if ya see em itā€™s ToH.

Pic from AL.com

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