Ep. 226 Spotted lanternfly in Illinois: Where it is and what to look for | #GoodGrowing - Good Growing

Episode Transcript
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Chris Enroth (00:05):
Welcome to the Good Growing podcast. I am Chris
Enroth, horticulture educatorwith University of Illinois
Extension coming at you fromMacomb, Illinois, and we have
got a great show for you today,the spotted lanternfly. Oh, I've
heard about it out east, but isit here in Illinois? Well, we
are going to learn more aboutthat when we talk with our

(00:26):
special guest, Kelly Estes,today. But you know I'm not
doing this by myself.
I'm joined, as always, everysingle week by horticulture
educator Ken Johnson inJacksonville. Hey, Ken.

Ken Johnson (00:36):
Hello, Chris. It's gonna be another excellent
episode talking about insects.

I you were looking forward to this one. I know you
were. It's an insect one. Yes.So, everyone, Ken is doing his
best to contain himself, withthis conversation we're gonna
have today.
So it's like a nice little treatat the September.

Yes. It's the reward for making it through
September.

That's right. You made it through September.
Congratulations. Fall's about tostart. Your your your favorite
time of year when it startsgetting cold, and we're gonna
get to talk about insects.

Well, I'm not sure it's getting cold anytime soon,
unless I check the the weather.I

hey, I'm I am I got the flannels out. I'm ready
to watch Charlie Brown's The BigPumpkin Hunt. You know, we're
we're we're getting into fall. Idon't care what the weather's
like. Oh, well, Ken, I I thinkyou're with as your excitement
is boiling over here, we weshould probably get started with

(01:43):
our topic today.
So introducing our specialguest. We're happy to have,
Kelly Estes. So Kelly is thestate ag pest survey
coordinator, located on campusand in Champaign Urbana. Kelly,
welcome to the show.

Kelly Estes (01:59):
Thanks for having me. Happy to be here. And as a
fellow bug nerd, this excites meas well.

I I am surrounded by bug people. That's just the
way it goes, I think. Well, weare happy to have you. Before we
dive into our questions today,could you just tell us a bit
about what you do, over oncampus?

Yeah. So like you mentioned, I am on campus at the
University of Illinois inChampaign. I am housed at the
Illinois Natural History Survey,and my title is state ag pest
survey coordinator. And I workwith the Illinois Department of
Agriculture as well as USDAAPHIS PPQ. And my primary role

(02:43):
is to coordinate invasivespecies surveys around the
state.
And so get to look for all kindsof new insects. Yes. Yes.
Insects. But we also, keep aneye on things like, plant
pathogens.
Sometimes we get to to look at,invasive plants. We talk

(03:07):
mollusks sometimes, but, a veryexciting and interesting job all
the time because they're youknow, in this world that we live
in, there's always something newright around the corner. And so
our job is to keep track ofwhat's going on around the
world, what's going around TheUS, and look at things that

(03:29):
might be introduced to the stateof Illinois, and that can be
things that affect crops,whether that be corn, soybeans,
specialty crops, plants in yourgarden, as well as things that
affect, our natural resources,state parks, trees, all sorts of

(03:49):
stuff. So lots of variety in myjob.

That is a big old plate that you have there. My
goodness. And you're looking fornew stuff. I don't know if if
you're necessarily wanting tofind the new stuff, but yeah.

No. We don't necessarily wanna find it, but,
and it's always interestingbecause we do different surveys
every year. And, the idea is tofind it early if it's here to
give us, potentially the bestshot at eradicating a new pest
or, controlling or managing newpests, maybe keep their

(04:28):
distribution limited. But one ofthe most interesting things to
try to explain about my job isthat a lot of times when we go
out to try to do stuff,everybody wants to know counts
and numbers and trends. But,honestly, for my job, zeros.
Zeros on the data sheet are arewhat we're looking for. So

(04:50):
negative data is the best kindof data for me to have with my
surveys.

Alright. Well, Ken, I guess it is time to dive
in for the topic this week. Sowould you mind kicking us off
with the first question, please?

I would love to. Alright. So spotted lanternfly.
I guess the first thing weshould talk about is is what is
spotted lanternfly, and whyshould we be concerned about
Yeah.

So spotted lanternfly has been around
actually for quite some time,and it's an invasive insect.
It's a plant hopper. So planthoppers have needle like
mouthparts, so it's a piercing,sucking insect, and it feeds on
a lot of different plants. Itprefers tree of heaven,

(05:35):
grapevines, but we also gottathink other economically
important things other than thangrapes when we start looking at
this whole host of plants thatthis insect can feed on, which I
think, you know, there's dozensupon dozens, close to a 100
different plants it can feed on,though it may not necessarily

(05:56):
impact a lot of those. Maples,black walnut, willows also are
up on that list as well.
So we look at the specialty cropimpact, but also more of our
potential impact to trees in thelandscape as well.

So, Kelly, what how did this even get here, the
spotted lanternfly? I have agood idea, but could you explain
it to us, please?

Yeah. So spotted lanternfly is native to Asia.
And we first discovered it inThe US back in 2014 in
Pennsylvania. And since thattime, it's become established in
several different states outthere. And just like it got,
introduced to The US, it wasmoved, artificially.

(06:50):
So it is a great hitchhiker.It's gonna move on, potentially
firewood with eggs, or theadults themselves can easily, be
moved by, planes, trains, andautomobiles, actually. So
they're very good at hiding inthings and, hitching a ride, to

(07:14):
the most unexpected places.

So that probably the question people are curious
about, do do we have it, here inIllinois? And if so, you know,
when did it get here? Wherewhere do we find it? And I
guess, is it spreading now thatif it is here?

Yeah. So it is a relatively new pest to Illinois,
actually. We first identified itin Illinois in Cook County in
2023. This has been on our radarfor a really, really long time.
We've probably surveyed for it,somewhere between five and ten
years, in different, pathwaysurveys or specialty crop

(07:54):
surveys, our, natural resourcetype surveys as well, but, it
finally made its way intoIllinois, and we located it, in
a neighborhood up in CookCounty.
And as we suspected, and like Imentioned before, it readily

(08:15):
moves, hitchhikes lots ofdifferent ways, and so it was
found near a big railroad,Norfolk Southern Rail Yard, up
there in Chicago. And so sincethat time, we've been monitoring
the area as well as the rest ofthe state, But right now, we

(08:36):
only have confirmation in CookCounty still.

So if, you know, like, when Emerald Ash border
was there, there's kind of aquarantine setup in Illinois
where you couldn't move ash,wood, and stuff like that. Is
there anything like that, forspotted lanternfly? I guess in
Illinois or nationally.

So Illinois does not have any quarantines that
are limiting, the movementspecifically of spotted
lanternfly. Out in Pennsylvania,there's some statewide
quarantines there, limitingmovement. But, honestly, it is
really hard to monitor andregulate, because it can move so

(09:12):
easily through unexpected meansas well as, the ways we expect
it to move. There's so manydifferent ways for it to move
that, like I said, it is hard toregulate. We can't necessarily
regulate trains and theinspections that it would take
to look at every single rail carcoming through the state of

(09:34):
Illinois or, you know, generaltraffic.
I mean, we do have, you know, wehave nursery inspectors in the
state of Illinois that arekeeping track of what's going on
in nurseries. There's othermaterials that are regulated in
the state that are also gettinginspected. So that's being
looked at for lots of differentinvasives, including spotted

(09:56):
lanternfly, but nothingspecifically that's regulating
spotted lanternfly movementright now.

That's interesting. I I remember seeing
the the maps as it slowlyprogressed from out east to the
Midwest, and it just seemed likea very sporadic it's in this
county. Now it's way over thiscounty. Now it's over in this
county. It did.
You can tell just how easily itseems to just hitchhike a ride
and show up in these random ishlike locations.

Well, it is. We've had, like I said, been
monitoring for this, for acouple years. And since that
initial positive find, wedifferent reports have come in.
There's lots of people that arelooking for it, plus general
outreach to the community. Weget information sent in.
And so a couple examples, if youwill. An Ace Hardware store a

(10:50):
couple counties over from CookCounty. We found a dead spotted
lanternfly. They had, basicallycattle water tanks that were
stacked and shipped, and so onehad wedged itself down in a
water tank. It was dead.
You think about FedEx. A reportI had a report the other day
from a FedEx worker who foundtwo dead ones in the FedEx

(11:14):
trailer. So they have a uncannyway of finding their way into
things, and sometimes it'sreally hard for them to survive,
getting from one location to thenext. And you think about, like,
those big statewide jumps, and,you know, there's reports of,
well, we found a dead one in awheel well of an airplane in

(11:36):
California. So it shows thatthey can move, very randomly,
but they don't always survivethe ride, I guess.

So okay, Kelly. Let's say maybe we live up in
Cook County or someone'slistening or watching us right
now. What could we or thisperson expect to see, like like,
right now? Like, it's confirmedin my neighborhood. What do I
need to expect?

So within the past couple months, here, last two
months or so, reports are reallystarting to ramp up, in that
Cook County area. And even then,it's not all the way across the
county. We have areas, thatwe're getting repeated results
on in. So what people arefinding are single adults that

(12:31):
have either flown, somewhere orgetting caught up in traffic, or
you think about insects or mothseven that get caught up in wind,
and so they're easily moved. Andso there are a couple of ways.
You know, you could be, if youlive in the area, be in your
yard or the alley or a parkinglot of the local grocery store.

(12:54):
Maybe there's trees around,maybe there's not, and you could
see a single adult on a tree oron your car. You could see a
couple on maybe the base of atree. We've gotten reports of
people waiting on the platformfor a metro, for the train, and
it lands on their shoulder or inthe train, and they see it

(13:17):
crawling on the ceiling of thetrain. So it can be found
anywhere, and so we're, I guess,just expecting, we have some
localized infestations thatwe're monitoring.
And from those infestations, aswe go out from that epicenter,
more single reports. And so Ithink what you're gonna find or

(13:42):
have the potential to find isgonna depend on the time of
year. So right now in September,adults are present. Males and
females are out and about.They're mating, and females are
laying eggs.
And they'll lay eggs fromSeptember and October. Adults
will be present probably throughearly November. Like you

(14:02):
mentioned, it's very warm, soinsects, warm is good for insect
survival. They'll probably bearound, until the first frost
and maybe repeated frosts. I canremember last year getting a
couple reports from people whowere out raking leaves and found
them under leaf litter.
So so till November probably isa really good time till you see

(14:26):
the adults. And what we're doingfrom November through early
spring is that they'reoverwintering as eggs. In egg
masses, they can lay themanywhere. They'll lay them on
trees, buildings, on firewood,on telephone poles. Research has
shown that it likes rusty metal,and so they'll lay them in

(14:50):
columns and cover them with akinda looks like putty, a
whitish green putty.
And over time, it kinda gets alittle dry and cracked. And then
as we get through winter andinto spring, April, early May,
those egg masses, the nymphs aregonna hatch. And they're
actually pretty small, a couplemillimeters. They're black with

(15:14):
white spots and kinda hard to tosee. Think the size of a large
tick, if you will, and it reallyisn't until they start
progressing through, additionalinstars.
They go through four nymphalstages. As they get a little
bigger, they become a little bitmore noticeable. So, early

(15:34):
instars are black with whitespots, and as they get into the
third and fourth instar, theybecome really vibrant red, and
then they have white spots withsome black stripes. And I think
those are probably, somethingnext spring that people would be
more apt to find in areas,usually around their host

(15:56):
plants, and tree of heaven is areally good host plant to use as
a a sentinel plot, if you will.Keep an eye if you especially if
you're near areas with aninfestation or where spotted
lanternfly has been found.
Keeping an eye on that tree ofheaven is a good potential
indicator. And then as you getthen into summer towards July,

(16:21):
adults will emerge, and so thecycle then continues. And
adults, are fairly distinct,although we do have a lot of
potential, insects that can beconfused with it. But they're
about, an inch long. They havelight brown tan wings, with
black spots on them, and thentheir under wings are really

(16:43):
vibrant, bright orangey redwith, some black bars or
stripes, towards the outer edgeof that wing.
And then if their wings arespread, sometimes you can see
their abdomen, and that isreally bright yellow. It's very
eye catching. Once people seeit, see a picture of it, they're

(17:04):
maybe a little more apt to takenotice of things like that.

And you have them in Jacksonville. Anyways, for
people listening, Ken's holdinga dead spotted lanternfly up in
a in a it's pinned in a box. Soyeah. He doesn't have a live
one.

No. I see it was like the identification. When
first showed up, they wouldalways pictures would always be
with the wings spread. But Ithink usually you see them with
the wings folder. You don't seethose bright red hind wings all
that much.

No. You really don't. And I have been getting
more, when you talk to somepeople that have seen them,
maybe, as something has, like,fluttered by and landed, the the
flash of red kind of grabs theirattention. But, yeah, most of
the time when you see theadults, their wings are gonna be
folded over their back, and mostplant hoppers are like that.

(18:04):
It's almost like a a wedge or aa triangle shaped body.
And, so you're looking for thattannish clay colored insect with
the black spots.

So, yeah, I guess they are a little camouflaged,
maybe a bit more difficult tosee because, in my mind's eye,
never having seen themphysically in person, I'm look
I'm I'm thinking, oh, I justgotta look for that red. Just
gotta look for that red, but youmight not see that.

Yeah. And I think some of the things that we get
submitted that are easilyconfused, with, spotted
lanternfly, some of the thesphinx moths because they're
have that brown tan coloration,and then they have the pink hind
wings. They're they're a lotlarger than what you're gonna

(18:55):
see with a spotted lanternfly.We also get, maybe some assassin
bugs or some of these, thingsthat we tend to see in fall
climbing around, even likemilkweed bugs or boxelder bugs.
Because like you mentioned,Chris, in your mind, you're
you're thinking, I've gotta seethat red orange color.

(19:15):
And like you said, that's notnecessarily always true.

So when I'm they're not here in my neck of
the woods. Now you mentionedsome of the places to look for.
So I'm I'm gonna be scoutingwhere? I'm I'm thinking, like,
rusty basketball posts, Tree OfHeaven. Like like, are where
should I be scouting if theyhave not been located in my
area?

Tree Of Heaven is my my number one go to, just
because that is a host that theywill, move to. But things like
telephone pole poles, firewood,things like that are are other
good things. Or if you know,like, campgrounds, things like

(20:01):
that, or if you know people thathave moved back and forth from
areas where spotted lanternflyis known to occur, would be a
possibility. It's it's reallyhard to try to give people good
advice on this one because theycould just they show up so
randomly in in different places.But good places to start would

(20:23):
be, like, some host plants liketree of heaven.

So we do have quite a bit of tree of heaven.
Would you suggest killing treeof heaven, controlling it,
leaving a few? Like, how howmany tree of heaven do we need
for scouting?

Not necessarily a lot. Like you said, it it it's
everywhere. Mhmm. It's invasive.It's aggressive.
It's it's really not somethingwe like to have around. But,
particularly in some of these,urban areas where spotted
lantern fly is present, it'severywhere. It's along inter

(21:01):
some of the interstates, alleys,along the train rail, things
like that. Now if you're are ahomeowner and you're dealing
with some in your yard, gettingrid of tree of heaven, sure, you
can you can cut that thing down.

You

know, if you're in an area that has spotted
lanternfly, you couldpotentially leave one as a like
I said, we call them sentinelplants or sentinel plots where
we we have one good, area orhost plant that I mean, if it's
the only one there, if they'rearound, that's what they're
gonna go to. So, you could leaveone if you you really wanted to.

(21:41):
And then like I said, that it isa pretty aggressively growing
plant. Cutting it down is isprobably the recommended way to
get rid of it, but you be awarethat it it regenerates pretty
easily, and so the the need fora herbicide might be might be
there as well.

I I have them a lot. Every time I seem to cut
one down, treat it withherbicide, 5,000 suckers sprout
from the root system. It's Idon't know if it's if it's a
winning or losing battle, butit's they they are a tough tree.

It takes a lot of dedication. Takes a lot of
dedication to be that that,person that's gonna control
that. And, you know, that's whyI'm an entomologist because most
of the time, I can get thesethings on one go.

Yep.

Alright. So if if somebody were to see a spotted
lanternfly, what should they do?And I guess, does it matter, you
know, if you're in Cook Countyor, I guess, the rest of the
state where we don't have it? Isthere is there kind a different
approach to that?

There's a couple different ways you can, look at
this. We have a email. It'slanternfly@illinois.edu, where
we are recommending people toreport what they when they
believe they have found spottedlanternfly or they think they
see that. With any good report,a photo is necessary, unless you

(23:14):
actually have the specimen. Wecan look at real things too, but
we absolutely need a photo topositively confirm spotted
lanternfly.
So a photo, when you saw it,where you saw it. And we map,
every report that comes into,that email, and that's all

(23:36):
internal. We ask for an addressor nearest intersection. We
don't release that kind ofinformation out to the general
public, but it gives us a goodidea of where these reports are
coming from. So when we getrepeated reports in a
neighborhood, we know, oh, theremight be an infestation nearby.
And, we can work with, cities ortowns to let them know, hey.

(24:00):
This is what's going on in yourarea, and things like that. So
the more information and morespecific information you can
share, it's always appreciated.And that email goes to myself.
There's a we have a team, thatanswer those.
Scott Schirmer with theDepartment of Ag. We take, quite

(24:20):
a few of those emails that comein, actually, all of them
between the two of us, andanswer them and, add it to our
database and, plot on our map,but it also gets copied to USDA
just to kinda keep on the pulseof what's going on. But,
honestly, you know, I also keeptelling people, if you can't get
ahold of me or maybe you don'tremember what the email address

(24:41):
is, go to extension. Go findKen. Go find Chris.
Go find whoever's, local, andthey can help you out, and
they're always willing to passthat information along to us as
well.

And I'll say for pictures, make sure they're in
focus and relatively close.

That is true. Usually, with with the spiral
lantern fly lantern fly photos,that's a mouthful, they've been
pretty good. I think we've onlyhad to request some additional
photos once or twice, and thatwas people thought they were
reporting egg masses, which cansometimes we get confused with

(25:22):
lichen or things like that thatmay be growing on a tree in the
neighborhood. But we have aspotted lanternfly response
team, that's, working ondetection and spread,
information. We also are puttingtogether we have a a homeowner's
guide because, you know, formost of the state, we are in a

(25:45):
detection mode.
We are still looking. We'restill, wanting to find out where
it's at. Is it just, insectsthat have hitchhiked, or is it
insects where there might be apopulation in an area? But, for
different areas within CookCounty, they're they have like,
it's here. So we need to figureout a way to, help own

(26:09):
homeowners and public publicworks, groups.
So we have a, a a guide thatkinda gives a rundown of what
spotted lanternfly is, why it'simportant, and then what can you
do, whether that be reporting ordealing with it on your
property. And so, you know, I'mgonna send that over to you guys

(26:32):
to to share with the group aswell.

Excellent. Well okay. I'm curious. Is there a
way to keep spotted lanternflyout of your yard? Like, I can
give my neighbor a coupleJapanese beetle traps, and I'm
in the clear all summer long aslong as they keep them up.
Is there any way to just keepthem away, keep them out?

You don't know how incredibly proud I am of you
right now with the Japanesebeetle traps. Because, yes,
they're Japanese beetles havepheromones that attract to each
other, so the best way to use atrap is to give it to everyone
around you.

Yes.

That's not necessarily true to spotted
lanternfly, unfortunately. Sothere's really not a way to keep
them out. There are insecticidesthat can kill, spotted
lanternfly, plant hoppers, andthat is they're pretty broad
spectrum. So if you're in anarea, you're like, oh, I've got
five, and we're gonna spray theyard. Well, they you may kill

(27:32):
those five, but you're gonnakill everything else in the yard
too.
So think about pollinators,beneficials, things like that.
And then, you know, they arevery mobile. So if you have
something they like, they'rejust gonna keep coming back in.
So, unfortunately, there's notan easy way to keep them at bay.

(27:53):
But, you know, squishing them,it it's surefire way to to kill
them.
When we get to the point wherethere could be bigger
infestations, then I think, youknow, our management strategies
will definitely change a littlebit.

Well, I I had the pleasure of meeting two of our
master gardener's grandkids.They were they came over before
their school started fromPennsylvania a few weeks ago.
Pennsylvania must be doing agood job of teaching kids what
to do about spotted lanternfliesbecause they're telling me all
about squishing them andstomping on them and smashing
them. And they were they were sohappy to to educate me, an

(28:34):
extension person, about spottedlanternfly and how they deal
with them out there, which isjust stepping on them. And they
also talked about, like, stickypaper.
Is that something to try?

So we're getting in we're getting in deep and, you
know, we are really gonnaeducate the masses today.

There you go.

So the the marketing and outreach that,
Pennsylvania has done has beenamazing. They've been dealing
with it for a decade now. Theykinda know where it's at, so
their approach is a littledifferently, but they don't need
like, go ahead and send me aphoto, then stomp on it.

Mhmm.

But it's everywhere. People know to
squash them. They know to stompthem. And, you know, we had a
colleague that was out in DC fora meeting, and he had to send
the group. And he's like, youwill not believe this.
Like, there's hand drawn postersof stomping spotted lanternfly,
and it's just well known.Everybody knows what it is. They

(29:34):
know what to do, and, it'ssomething that I think is would
we'd love to have here, youknow, to something to catch on
that that much. Now when youtalk about sticky paper, there's
lots of research going on withspotted lanternfly right now.
And so one of the my bugnerdiness is gonna show.

(29:57):
Ken, are you ready? So spottedlanternfly nymphs, they like to
climb upwards. And so thinkabout tree of heaven. If there's
an egg mass, they're gonnahatch, and I talk with my hands.
Sorry.
They are gonna climb up, up, up,up, up, then they're out, and
then they drop down, and thenthey climb back up again. So

(30:18):
sticky paper around bases oftrees, they've tried things like
that. Off target effects are alittle bit questionable because
other things can fly into it,get stuck, and even you think
insects and beneficials,pollinators, things like that.
But they're also having issueswith with birds as well. So

(30:41):
everything's kinda the surveyingand trapping keeps getting
revised, and, there's some greatresources on different research,
methods or different thingsthey're trying.
And I'll shoot some of thoselinks over where you guys can
provide, as well if peoplereally like to get into this
stuff. But, they have differenttypes of traps they're they're

(31:02):
working on, a circle trap and alampshade trap. So think of a
wrap around a tree, and thenthere's, like, a cover kinda
like a lampshade. And so thethey found that adults will,
like, climb up underneath those.It's kinda protected and will
lay eggs in that.
Or so there's just lots of coolthings they're learning about

(31:23):
the behavior and differentthings like host plants that
they like or don't like andtiming of things. And so
research just continues toevolve with spotted lanternfly,
particularly in those big areaslike Pennsylvania and New York
and Virginia where populationsare are much, much higher, and

(31:43):
they have these concentratedareas where they can try these
things out.

Yeah. I don't think I've ever seen a Saturday
Night Live skit feature aninvasive insect until I saw one
with a guy dressed up as aspotted lanternfly. And then the
other oh, it might have beenlast fall, but I tuned into a a
Major League Baseball game, andthey were showing all of the
spotted lanternflies crawlingaround on the walls of the

(32:12):
stadium. That I mean, it peopleknow all about this out east.

They really do, and, like, it's cool in a bad
kind of way. Yes. You know? Andit is, and it's it's you know,
Ken had sent me the link, andI'd seen it too where they were
picking up you know, sometimeshere in Illinois, during bird
migration, you'll get theweatherman. He's like, oh, I can

(32:41):
see the birds migrating.
They're picking up on theirradar. And it was about two
weeks ago, they thought theywere picking up spotted
lanternfly movement on radar aswell. And so, when you get into
areas with big populations, andinsects get caught up in the air

(33:02):
in jet streams, and theyactually can go really, really
high in the air. So, again,science is cool. Insects are
bad.
Not all of them, but this is abad one. But we're finding out
really cool things about it tohelp us, learn how it moves and
how to manage it.

So I remember when they when they first showed up
not first, but after they'vebeen in Pennsylvania for a
while, you'd hear stories ofpeople, like, going out to new
areas where they're we just hadthese mass populations. Like,
all the honeydew they'reproducing, it's, like, raining.
Are they still seeing that outthere?

They are. So, as a plant hopper, it we talked about
their mouthparts, and itbasically sucks juices, and then
they emit this sugary substancecalled honeydew. Think like
aphids. Aphids are somethingwe're familiar with here in
Illinois. And so, you know, notonly is it coating the the
plants that it on or the treesthat it's on, And you can I

(34:00):
think it's you can go toYouTube?
I used to have one in apresentation years ago, like Ken
said, when it we first werelearning about it, and you can,
like, just see it droppingbecause there was so much onto
the understory in a in a woodedarea, but it's also coating
swing sets, sidewalks, differentthings like that. So it's kind

(34:25):
of a huge nuisance out east aswell. You know, at some of our
meetings, we talked a lot about,impact to the grape industry,
for vineyards. A direct impactis injury to grapes. But in a

(34:45):
era of, agritourism, a lot ofvineyards also have weddings or
have, you know, the come try andthey have a sipping area or
people aren't gonna wanna getmarried, with spotted
lanternflies flying around themor go out and sit on a sticky

(35:09):
bench or things like that.
So, you know, there's beenstories where we've read of, you
know, not only has the impactthe grape industry bottom line
with their wine or jelly orthings like that, all the
agritourism type stuff, can feelan impact as well. And then you

(35:32):
think about, you know, just theimpact of, you know, citizens'
general life of being able to goto the park or sit outside in
their backyard or have theirkids go play on the playset.

Spot lanternfly can be the new confetti at weddings.

Oh, if only we could bottle it up.

Just we just need the wings, though, Ken. Don't
want all of it.

Mark my words. I bet we could go on Etsy, and I
bet they've got earrings thathave been put in with wings and
things like that. So there's allsorts of ways we can can use
them.

I'm sure. Sure.

I'm thinking of so Southern Illinois has an
amazing, like, grape and wineindustry, agritourism down
there. I visited there severaltimes. Boy, I'm thinking of
sitting on their back patios.There's so many arbors and
pergolas with vines. Oh my gosh.
You're right. You'd be justshowered in honeydew.

Hopefully, we can avoid that here in Illinois.
Yes. And if it is, it's it'syears down the road, but it's
it's real things that differentareas out east deal have dealt
with over time.

And then all the city mold that moves in.

And the city mold.

That's so good. Now am I gonna start asking
people, do you have aphids, ordo you have spotted lanternfly?
That's now we have to be more wecan ask

more questions. I think you have some time. I hope
you have some time.

I hope so. I hope so. Well, emerald ash borer
seemed to travel along therailroad corridors in my area at
least. It's where it, like,always see it seemed to pop up
in all the counties I coverright along the railroad and
neighborhoods right there. SoI'll keep my eye out looking at
tree heaven along the railroad.

Perfect. I will sign you up to help me do
surveys next year.

Alright. I'll be out there in the field. Well,
that was a lot of greatinformation about spotted
lanternfly. We are going to puta link down in the show notes of
if you think you see this inIllinois, where you can go to
report it, and also an excellenthomeowner's guide for Illinois
residents on spotted lanternflyas well. With a Good Growing

(37:50):
podcast production of Universityof Illinois Extension, edited
this week by Ken Johnson, KellyEstes, thank you so much for
joining us today to talk allthings Spotted Lanternfly.
And you know what? It washonestly news to me a few well,
maybe a month or so ago, weemailed you and you're like,
yeah, we have it in Illinois.I'm like, really? I had no idea.

Maybe one of our best kept secrets that we need
to to just shout to the world atthis point.

Yep. Yep. So sorry to all the people who asked me
maybe in the last year aboutthis, ah, we're just waiting to
find it. It's here. We found it.
So thank you, Kelly.

You're welcome. Anytime.

And Ken, thank you as always and for joining us
talking about your favoritething this week, bugs. Insects,
technically, I guess speaking.

Yes. Thank you, Kelly. That was a lot of good
information there. And yes, ifyou need help looking for them,
I'll help you too. And Chris?

Best for both of you.

And Chris, thank you as always. And let's do this
again next week.

Oh, we shall do this again next week. The
horticultural hijinks willcontinue in this dry fall that
we're having right now. We'vetalked about being droughty and
and no rain with the expectationit would cause it to rain. That
hasn't happened yet. So we'llsee what we talk about next
week.
Probably watering our plants. Solisteners, thank you for doing

(39:22):
what you do best and that islistening or if you watched us
on YouTube watching. And asalways, keep on growing. Welcome
to the Good Growing podcast. Iam Chris Enroth.

(39:42):
Sorry, Ken. You got a lot ofwork to do this week. Okay. I
will do this for real.

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Ep. 226 Spotted lanternfly in Illinois: Where it is and what to look for | #GoodGrowing

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Ep. 226 Spotted lanternfly in Illinois: Where it is and what to look for | #GoodGrowing