Never mind EAB, Spotted Lanternfly is worse

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TradEddie

TradEddie

Minister of Fire
Jan 24, 2012
981
SE PA
Ever heard of Alianthus (Tree of Heaven), or the Spotted Lanternfly? If you live on the East Coast, you will soon.
For years I've anxiously awaited the arrival of Emerald Ash Borer on my property, but a new invasive pest has arrived first. Currently in SE Pennsylvania, and spreading fast, the Spotted Lanternfly is both a serious threat to trees and a disgusting nuisance to anyone enjoying the outdoors.

It feeds mostly on the Alianthus (Tree of Heaven), which itself is an invasive pest, but it will damage other trees and agricultural crops too. It seems unstoppable, and the stressed trees cause even more nuisance by increasing their already prodigious generation of runners. So too does cutting them down, unless the stump is treated with very string herbicides. The sappy excrement from the insects covers the bark and ground and then fungus grows on the sap making a huge gross mess.

Worst of all, it seems like the firewood is low BTU too. Any experience here with splitting or burning this wood? I've got a 20" diameter tree that is all but dead in just two seasons (I'm about ten miles from ground zero).
Has anyone else in SEPA experienced them yet? If not, brace yourselves!

TE
 
Luckily I have not seen any lanternflies in my part of PA yet. Im getting pretty damn tired of these invasive species that seem to come mostly from Asia. Stink bugs, EAB, now lanternflies.
 
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I have not seen or heard of them here yet. But we're not that far away, so sounds like within a year or so.
 
If you see them, kill them. They’re in neighboring areas and I’ve seen a few here this past summer. I had an egg mass on my stucco I scraped off and torched it so I’m sure this summer they’ll be all over here. The one job I worked on around Pottstown last year was quarantined so I couldn’t bring any wood home from there. It all went through the grinder
 
TradEddie said:
Ever heard of Alianthus (Tree of Heaven), or the Spotted Lanternfly? If you live on the East Coast, you will soon.
For years I've anxiously awaited the arrival of Emerald Ash Borer on my property, but a new invasive pest has arrived first. Currently in SE Pennsylvania, and spreading fast, the Spotted Lanternfly is both a serious threat to trees and a disgusting nuisance to anyone enjoying the outdoors.

It feeds mostly on the Alianthus (Tree of Heaven), which itself is an invasive pest, but it will damage other trees and agricultural crops too. It seems unstoppable, and the stressed trees cause even more nuisance by increasing their already prodigious generation of runners. So too does cutting them down, unless the stump is treated with very string herbicides. The sappy excrement from the insects covers the bark and ground and then fungus grows on the sap making a huge gross mess.

Worst of all, it seems like the firewood is low BTU too. Any experience here with splitting or burning this wood? I've got a 20" diameter tree that is all but dead in just two seasons (I'm about ten miles from ground zero).
Has anyone else in SEPA experienced them yet? If not, brace yourselves!

TE
Click to expand...
Tons of them around already. Saw two (dead) on our lot, two neighbors about 1/4 mile apart had infestations this summer. On a trip up to Tractor Supply, we made several other stops, and one landed on the car at every stop. I was like, oh $hit.

One of the stops was to pick up the isocore maul, price matched by one of the two major home improvement stores, to round out the fiskars big three collection. Think it was Lowes. I'm still lukewarm on it after about a half cord of splitting. Don't love the sticky grip or the balance just yet.
 
Googled this list night on a PA Dept. of Agriculture web page. Supposed to have initially showed up in Berks County in 14' and has spread to about 5 surrounding states. Sounds like a lost cause to me. But I'll keep an eye out for the egg nests and destroy them. Lots of Tree of Heaven around here so I'm surprised they haven't shown up yet. If they just kill the Tree of Heaven would be no loss at all to me the weed tree that it is.
 
We had thousands of them in a small grove of about 20 Tree of Heaven trees. We cut them all down, dug out the roots and burned it all in a large bonfire. We are hoping it will keep them on the Tree of Heaven trees that are off our property. You can see them all over the trunk of this one tree and the mold at the bottom. Hopefully someone comes up with something to stop this spread.


AMU9ao6
 
Can't believe they haven't shown up here but I would have recognized them as unique looking as they are. I'm about 20 miles or so south of Gettysburg so not that far away.
 
ED 3000 said:
Tons of them around already. Saw two (dead) on our lot, two neighbors about 1/4 mile apart had infestations this summer. On a trip up to Tractor Supply, we made several other stops, and one landed on the car at every stop. I was like, oh $hit.

One of the stops was to pick up the isocore maul, price matched by one of the two major home improvement stores, to round out the fiskars big three collection. Think it was Lowes. I'm still lukewarm on it after about a half cord of splitting. Don't love the sticky grip or the balance just yet.
Click to expand...

I find the isocore needs a staggered stance and a bit of a step into the swing. It is a bit awkward, but I haven't had anything it can't handle yet. For most of my splitting I was using a double sided splitting axe with a synthetic handle. The isocore only comes out for the really tough stuff.
 
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TradEddie said:
Ever heard of Alianthus (Tree of Heaven), or the Spotted Lanternfly? If you live on the East Coast, you will soon.
For years I've anxiously awaited the arrival of Emerald Ash Borer on my property, but a new invasive pest has arrived first. Currently in SE Pennsylvania, and spreading fast, the Spotted Lanternfly is both a serious threat to trees and a disgusting nuisance to anyone enjoying the outdoors.

It feeds mostly on the Alianthus (Tree of Heaven), which itself is an invasive pest, but it will damage other trees and agricultural crops too. It seems unstoppable, and the stressed trees cause even more nuisance by increasing their already prodigious generation of runners. So too does cutting them down, unless the stump is treated with very string herbicides. The sappy excrement from the insects covers the bark and ground and then fungus grows on the sap making a huge gross mess.

Worst of all, it seems like the firewood is low BTU too. Any experience here with splitting or burning this wood? I've got a 20" diameter tree that is all but dead in just two seasons (I'm about ten miles from ground zero).
Has anyone else in SEPA experienced them yet? If not, brace yourselves!

TE
Click to expand...
I had a huge Aliantus tree go down in my back yard one winter.Ants eat up the base but the rest was good dry wood.I got about two cords out of that tree.It burns well.Just keep it dry.These trees grow pretty fast.I'll take it.It splits good when dry.
 
I have been seeing articles on the Fruit Grower News publications I get regarding spotted lantern flies, very bad for pome fruits and grapes.
 
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Some positive news on this pest, two naturally occurring fungi, one occurring in trees and one in soil, appear to kill them off rather efficiently. And an interesting background on how this was all discovered, news article in the third link:

https://www.readingeagle.com/news/a...-2-fungi-killed-spotted-lanternflies-in-berks
https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2019/04/destructive-plant-pest-thwarted-two-native-fungi

https://www.readingeagle.com/news/a...fly-killing-fungi-found-near-berks-fruit-farm

In answer to
> Has anyone else in SEPA experienced them yet? If not, brace yourselves!
Yes, in northern Montgomery County they are ... abundant. As reported, in the absence of a wood lot they are attracted to light colored surfaces with some sun exposure -- stucco, concrete, and adjacent red brick. They just sit there, they don't really swarm close together like a bee hive, but they do seem to all find the same area in which to collect.
 
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I’m near you, and I’ve been treating for them with dinotefurin (systemic, spring), and bifenthrin (topical, now). Most neighbors are completely swarmed in with them, and have lost numerous trees, I seem to be fairing a bit better. I have lost two walnuts this year, but I think it’s due to our recently (3 years) perpetually-wet soul conditions, than SLF.
 
Ashful said:
I’m near you, and I’ve been treating for them with dinotefurin (systemic, spring), and bifenthrin (topical, now). Most neighbors are completely swarmed in with them, and have lost numerous trees, I seem to be fairing a bit better. I have lost two walnuts this year, but I think it’s due to our recently (3 years) perpetually-wet soul conditions, than SLF.
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I've heard the county extension offices can be really helpful with recommendations and suggestions, one call or email gets things started.
 
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Just taken. Yes, already been in touch with county extension, via Penn State.

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Smaller than a butterfly, larger than the average moth. Adult wing span is probably close to 1-1/2”. They’re pretty cool looking, their second pair of wings are a very bright shade of red, and they can jump like you wouldn’t believe. Sort of like those popper toys that kids have, they go off like a wound spring.

But they spend all of that energy on that first hop, so you can simply walk up and step on them after they spend their energy on that. They’re clumsy fliers, usually only going 10 - 20 feet on a flight path. They’re hell on any tree that looks even a little bit like Tree of Heaven, like the young Walnut in my photo above. They will literally cover the tree, to the point where you can’t even see it, it just looks like a swarm of moving bark.

Aside from the severe tree damage, and the crop damage that has been forecast, the other huge problem with these things is that hornets love to eat them. I had a major problem with Giant African Hornets last year, which was a real issue for us. These giant hornets would fly into the garage every night, because they’re nocturnal and attracted to light, like giant scary moths. This year we have a new type of hornet eating them, all black with just a small yellow stripe, much smaller, but still scary looking. They dive bomb me when I mow close to that tree.
 
Geez, I'm bummed enough about SWD on my berries, now i get to worry about these guys too. As if i didn't need a new reason to hate tree of heaven.
 
Looks like the projected range is south of the great lakes region. Hope that prediction stays true. Haven't seen hide nor hair, yet.
 
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Retired Coal Miner said:
The Philadelphia newspaper has a write up saying there is a bio pesticide already on the market under going testing, and results seem hopeful. They don't mention the name of the pesticide.

https://www.inquirer.com/science/sp...h-penn-state-cornell-university-20190828.html
Click to expand...

That’s good news. I’ve been doing a dinotefurin systemic application each spring, and then chasing any that congregate this time of year with bifenthrin. I’ve been faring much better than any neighbor, but it’s not 100% effective. I have two walnuts that appear dead already, and while it may be unrelated (we have had Biblical levels of rain for 2 - 3 straight years, and these trees are adjacent to septic field = wet roots), I am very concerned. I also don’t like using massive quantities of systemic insecticides, it is non-selective.
 
Haven't seen any here yet and I have well over 100 walnuts. Wife would love to see them gone, claims it kills her garden and it's her fault we have them
 
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