Hated spotted lanternflies during the summer of 2023? Well...they're back and even more are expected in 2024.
Spotted lanternflies have plagued Western PA for the last several years, and they're expected to make their 2024 emergence starting in mid to late April.
Evey True Value owner Andy Amrhein told KDKA radio, this year's invasive infestation is going to be worse than year's past
“They were out a little bit in 2022,” said Amrhein. “They were horrendous in 2023, they should be even worse in 2024 and then in 2025, we’re not really going to be noticing them as much.”
Amrhein says experts predict the lanternfly’s cycle will be similar to when stink bugs first arrived in the late 90s/early 2000s.
After a couple years of overwhelming numbers, the stink bug became just “another bug.”
The same is expected to happen with lanternflies.
Amrhein says like the stink bug, the lanternfly came over in shipping containers from China and were able to propagate because they don’t have any natural predators in the United States.
“As they progress in the area, more and more other animals are learning to eat them,” said Amrhein. “You have your spiders, you have your praying mantis, you have your birds in particular, that are finding that they can eat them.”
The reason the lanternflies will be so bad this year is because millions of egg masses were laid around the area and those eggs produce hundreds of more bugs.
Western PA residents can get ahead of the curve in removing spotted lanternflies by targeting their egg masses as soon as possible.
The good news, they’re not as destructive to plants and trees as previously thought, though they can hurt some, including maple and other “sweeter” trees.
Amrhein says the spotted lanternfly is easy to kill with either organic or chemical-based sprays or a stop of your shoe.
“Any of your known products are going to work on them,” said Amrhein.
While there are no effective traps as of now, Amrhein says there could be some available by summer.
Listen to the full interview above for more tips on dealing with the lanternfly this year.