June 17, 2024 • 24 mins
The Sunshine Gardening podcast discusses the invasive spotted lanternfly with Dr. Jonathan Larson. They cover its characteristics, impact on plants, and management strategies. Topics include its life cycle, impact on ecosystems and agriculture, spread and detection, management, preventative measures, community efforts, and available resources. Early intervention and community involvement are emphasized.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Welcome to the Sunshine Gardening Podcast. I'm Kristen
Hildebrand, your host. In today's episode, episode 33,
we focus on a troublesome
invasive insect called the spotted lanternfly.
Join us as we explore the implications
of its presence and learn practical ways to
keep our green spaces safe. Our special guest
(00:22):
for this discussion is doctor Jonathan Larson,
an entomologist from the University of Kentucky Extension
Service whose expertise has been crucial in understanding
and addressing the threats posed by invasive insect
species
like the spotted lanternfly.
Stay tuned as we delve into the world
of the spotted lanternfly
(00:42):
and arm you with the knowledge to defend
your green spaces.
Let's get started.
Welcome to the Sunshine Gardening podcast.
This gardening show will equip and inspire avid
gardeners with tips and tricks to help them
navigate the gardening world. The show will also
highlight specific growing requirements for seasonal plants so
(01:03):
the sun will shine brighter over their Kentucky
garden.
And now, here's that ray of sunshine,
garden enthusiast and horticulture
extension agent, Kristen Hildebrand
with the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service.
Welcome back to the Sunshine Gardening podcast. And
joining us with today is doctor Jonathan Larson.
(01:24):
Welcome, doctor Larson.
Thanks for having me. I I'm, very appreciative
of the invite.
Yes. I am so glad that you're here,
and I'm just gonna get right down to
business because, you know, back in October of
last year, we were at a agent in
service training, and you first told us that
this
invasive
insect, I guess a bad bug, was discovered
(01:47):
in Kentucky,
and we've kind of been on the alert
about it for a little while. You've been
monitoring it,
and so I wanted to kinda put the
alert out to everybody
that's listening to the podcast about this invasive
pest so that way that they can be
in the know and kinda watch for it
because, like you said, I'm hoping you can
give us some more information about the spotted
(02:07):
lanternfly.
So just to get our conversation going this,
today,
can you start by explaining a little bit
more about the spotted lanternfly
and why it's considered such an invasive pest?
Boy, can I? So with the spotted lanternfly,
it's a part of a really interesting group
of insects. We call them the fulgorid plant
hoppers, which sounds kinda like a band name.
(02:29):
It includes other luminary insects like the peanut
headed bug and a few others that have
kind of weird ornamentation
on their head. So it's kind of an
exclusive group of insects, but most of them,
they're just kinda out there jumping around, feeding
on plants. With this one, it's a non
native species from Asia that was accidentally introduced
here in the United States.
(02:50):
And ever since its introduction, it's been spreading
from Pennsylvania where it was first discovered.
And it's an issue because it feeds on
over 70 different species of plants. It produces
prodigious amounts of honeydew, which I'm sure we'll
get more into here in a few minutes.
It's the fecal material that insects that feed
on sap create, and this one makes a
lot of it. So we'll talk about poo,
(03:11):
I'm sure, here on this episode.
And it's also just kind of a a
startling organism, and it frightens people. It makes
them kinda nervous when they see it.
I was gonna say it's kind of a
a different looking kind of pest from some
of the other ones that we've had that
have kind of been in that same category
as invasive.
If you start to really look at it,
(03:32):
which we're about to, you know, tell a
little bit more about it, you know, it's
very different
as an adult versus, you know, it's in
mature stages.
Yeah. That's a good point. So when we
talk about this group of insects, the planthoppers,
they're a part of the true bugs. That
means that they have incomplete metamorphosis.
Usually, that means they look fairly similar throughout
their life cycle. For example, an aphid, it
(03:53):
looks like an aphid throughout most of its
life. It doesn't change a whole lot until
it reaches adulthood and maybe grows wings. With
this one, they actually change colors quite a
bit throughout their life. When they first hatch
from their eggs, they are black and white
with sort of polka dots. They look like
a reverse dalmatian.
And then as they age, they start to
get this kind of red war paint on
them. And when they become adults and get
(04:14):
their wings, their wings have this interesting sort
of alligator skin pattern on the front of
them and then dots on the back, and
they're brightly colored.
The back wings in particular have this big
red streak on them. And people mistake them
for butterflies and moths, this particular organism. Whenever
we post about it on Kentucky bugs, we
were like, well, do we have to kill
it? It's so pretty. I I kinda like
(04:34):
this one.
I was gonna say they I guess the
colorations
are, you know, very striking and that might
be why they made that comment, but I
guess if they know a little bit more
about the pest itself, then they would probably
wanna think otherwise.
But can you tell us a little bit
more about the spotted lanternfly,
like a little bit how it got to
the United States? I know you mentioned Pennsylvania
(04:55):
there, but maybe, you know, share how its,
you know, spread has impacted local
agriculture and ecosystems here. Absolutely. Yeah. In terms
of invasive species, you know, we have all
this globalized trade and travel nowadays,
and we just are shipping things all over,
it feels like. And a lot of our
pests that are invasive are coming from Asia
due to our sort of increased trade with,
(05:17):
countries on that continent
and the kind of match between our climate
and theirs.
And if you look at the spotted lanternfly,
historically, when people had talked about the there
was always kind of an assumption that it
came over on nursery stock, some imported trees
or shrubs that were gonna be planted. But
I was actually reading in preparation for this,
Cornell,
they have a whole publication on this one,
(05:37):
and they say it came over on rocks.
Somebody imported some rocks, and there were probably
eggs laid onto those rocks. And we'll talk
more about their egg laying proclivities and why
that's a problem.
And they weren't noticed. They blended right in,
and then the eggs hatched in Pennsylvania.
They were probably kind of loose in the
landscape in Pennsylvania for about 2 years between
(05:58):
2012
2014, I believe, before they were discovered
and identified, and then we established that they
were here. Since then, they've been spreading. They're
in lots of different states now. Last year,
2023 was a big year for the spotted
lanternfly. They jumped to, I think,
4 new states.
Illinois,
Kentucky,
Iowa, and Tennessee
(06:20):
all had new hits with it. Unfortunately, lays
its eggs on trees and shrubs that we
sell from one state to another. It'll lay
its eggs on trains, planes, and automobiles,
which can then go to new locations. And
if they hatch there, then we get a
new infestation. And they're also just really good
hitchhikers. They crawl up under the wheel wells
of semi trucks and cars,
(06:41):
and you are stopped at a gas station.
You accidentally pick 1 up. You take it
to the new spot, and you drop it
off, and then they get going there.
In terms of agricultural effects, the big thing
that they've impacted agriculture wise is grape production.
That's really the only sort of I don't
wanna say important commodity necessarily, but the major
economic commodity that they've impacted,
(07:02):
they can kill grapevines.
But beyond that, a lot of the other
plants that they feed on, they're trees. So
they're things that we have in our landscapes.
Maybe in tree nursery production, you might have
some impacts, but they rarely kill a lot
of plants. The main plants that they kill
are grapes and tree of heaven. Tree of
heaven is itself an invasive species, so I
don't really mind if it takes care of
(07:23):
a few of those for us. I was
gonna say, I know it really enjoys, like
you said, the the tree of heaven.
And some of the information that you had
for us in that October meeting for the
agent in service
was really interesting, like some of the pictures
that you shared of the spotted lanternfly, like,
covering, like, a lot of trees.
(07:44):
And didn't you say that sometimes it affects,
like, children's play if they're outside
in some of those states that you mentioned?
Yeah. Yeah. So this is an interesting invasive
species to me because, you know, you and
I, if we were talking about invasive species,
I think we would talk a lot about
something like Japanese beetle or emerald ash borer,
things that made, like, really obvious problems. Right?
Japanese beetle, it'll eat your whole garden up
(08:06):
if you let it. You've talked about it
before. I have no doubt. And then emerald
ash borer, you know, a whole genus of
trees, a very common street tree, they're just
dying by the dozens, by the 100. With
this one, it is a little more tricky
to talk about because it's not causing that
widespread devastation. You know, a soybean field isn't
gonna disappear because of spotted lanternfly. Corn isn't
being impacted.
(08:27):
But, yeah, people's enjoyment of the outdoors is
sort of reduced by this pest. They're big.
They're kinda weird looking. They get all over
the trees that people live near or play
near. One of the images I think you're
referring to, it's a there's a swing set
in a wagon, and they're not being used
because the tree is completely coated with spotted
lanternflies that are feeding. This goes on usually
(08:49):
for, like, a 2 to 3 year period
before they kind of wind down in the
area that they've infested.
They also are quite smelly. They will produce
this honeydew that I alluded to before.
As they feed, they're sucking sap out. Sap
is not very nutritious, doesn't have a lot
of minerals and nutrients in it, and so
they have to eat a lot of it.
They're constantly going to the bathroom. And as
(09:11):
this leaks out of their body, this is
called honeydew. It's very attractive to black sooty
mold, which produces kind of a a fermenting
odor a little bit, and it's all over
the place. It kills grass and tree and
shrubs and trees that are growing under the
tree that they've infested
and most people just don't want to smell
it or be around it. I was gonna
(09:31):
say, I can see how that would definitely
impact a lot of play if you have
that insect in the backyard. And like you
said, it's just kinda
weird looking in its own sort of way.
You know, you kinda said earlier that we
found this pest just in Sparta. Have have
there been other places in Kentucky that have
notified you of the spotted lanternfly?
(09:53):
Luckily, there's only the one infestation that we
know of over in Sparta, Kentucky. It's in
Gallatin County.
This is an interesting
situation, I would say, because normally we would
assume an invasive pest would pop up in,
you know, Louisville,
maybe Lexington, maybe Frankfort, maybe Bowling Green because
these are areas of commerce and trade.
We have had a lot of, sort of
near misses in the Bowling Green area, I
(10:15):
will say. There's been people that have tried
to report it from Mammoth Cave, and none
of those have have come true. One of
them was re really interesting because it featured
a a kid that downloaded an image from
Wikipedia
and showed it to his dad and said
that he took this picture
of the pest. And so it wasn't a
he was trying to be helpful, but he
(10:35):
he sort of lied. He didn't really have
a picture. We've never found it in the
Mammoth Cave area. I just wanna be clear
on that. There has been lots of people
that have gone out and surveyed for it.
So far, just that SPARTA find, which is
right across the river from the first find
in Indiana. That's how it ended up there
at first.
Yeah. I know when you first told us
about it, we were you know, it was
it was news, and I think at that
(10:57):
time, there was, like, alert that went out
on the media about it. So, doctor Larson,
can you describe some methods that are currently
used to help manage and maybe control spotted
glenoid populations?
I know you mentioned these other states, especially
Pennsylvania,
and with their grape industry. Maybe there's some
things you've learned from that state. For sure.
In Pennsylvania, the grape industry's there. You'll you'll
(11:20):
see publications about the the pyrethroid type insecticides
that you can use to kill them while
they're on the grapevine. So that would be
a contact insecticide that would go on top
of them. There are some systemic products that
we use in tree
protection. The big one there is dinotefuran
that is labeled for use here in the
state of Kentucky. We had an emergency label
prepared for it just in case it ever
(11:42):
showed up here, and now we're really primed
and ready for it. So if you inject
the tree or inject the soil around the
tree with that insecticide,
it's sucked up. And then when the spotted
lanternfly feeds on those trees, it will perish.
In Pennsylvania, they've tried to create trap trees.
So they go through in an area with
lots of tree of heaven, they kinda wipe
(12:02):
out all the small ones and they'll leave
a big one. Tree of heaven is notoriously
difficult to remove anyway, but they leave 1
or 2 of these big ones, They inject
it. And then as the SLF, as the
lanternflies show up, they feed on this sort
of poison tree. They die by the 1,000.
It hasn't gotten rid of it. I wanna
be clear on that, but it does mitigate
some of the problem.
(12:23):
Yes. And with that information, that dinotechlpirone,
if I if I pronounced that correctly, is
that something that homeowners can apply or does
an arborist have to to do that application?
Interestingly,
nowadays, this is a professional only product. It
used to be available on the homeowner market,
but that was changed about 2 summers ago.
Change at the EPA occurred, and so that
(12:44):
product is not available for homeowners to apply
themselves. But if you contact your local arborists,
they will have access to it and they
can inject it. Exactly, so if you need
to go to the treesaregood.org
website, you can check out who your certified
arborists are in the state of Kentucky.
I appreciate all that information, and Doctor. Larsen,
are there any effective preventative strategies that can
(13:05):
communities can implement to kinda help curve this
invasive pest too? I appreciate that question because,
you know, everybody wants to keep it away.
You can remove tree of heaven, our department
of forestry here on campus, as well as
the Kentucky State Forest
Service. These folks have guides to how to
get rid of it. It's not just a
chop and walk away kinda situation. It does
(13:27):
involve some herbicides usually. So cutting down on
tree of heaven cuts down on the recruitment
of spotted lanternfly. It is their preferred host
to feed on. They typically switch to it
later in their life cycle.
They don't have to, but they they like
to to feed on it. So that can
help, but really supporting monitoring efforts is the
biggest thing. So you'll see some traps usually
(13:48):
along the Ohio River corridor. I don't think
we have any deployed in your neck of
the woods, but these are traps that the
lanternflies will go into that we can monitor
for. Folks can also join our citizen science
effort to monitor for these invasive species. We
call it Kentucky keepers,
trying to keep Kentucky free of these types
of invasive pests. And you can learn about
(14:10):
that from the office of the state entomologist,
and you can sign up for a sign
in, and you'll download an app, survey 1,
2, 3, and you can actually go out
and report tree of heaven. You can go
out and take pictures and report suspected spotted
lanternflies.
If you don't wanna go through all that,
you can also submit photos to reportapest@uky.edu.
(14:31):
We get hundreds of images on that email
address of suspected lanternflies,
and I really appreciate it. None of them
have been spotted lanternfly except for the one
last year in Gallatin County, but we appreciate
everybody that takes a moment to submit those
photos because that means you're invested in sort
of preventing these invasive species.
Yeah. And we may link some of that
(14:52):
information that you just shared down in the
show notes for today's episode so that way,
if somebody does wanna be involved with those
particular projects, I know we've had a couple
of those kits kinda come through the office
from the entomology you said the entomology department?
So we have the entomology department and then
the office of the state entomologist. Kentucky is
unique.
Usually, the office of the state entomologist is
(15:14):
would be in the capital,
and Kentucky, by state law, the department chair
of our department gets to be the state
entomologist.
Oh, interesting.
Okay. Well, I know the business card was
in with that kit so that can be
kinda confusing at times. Yes.
Now I know earlier on you mentioned a
little bit about how the characteristics
(15:35):
for spotted lanternfly, but to an average Joe
person, is there a certain, like, identify,
you know, identifier that's really good for spotted
lanternfly, especially, like, the infestations,
and what should they do if they find
1 on their property? I know you just
kinda mentioned some of those. Absolutely. If you
are looking at insects and you're concerned it
could be a lanternfly,
(15:56):
there are look alikes. The leopard moth kinda
looks like it. The milkweed bugs and box
elder bugs sometimes get confused for it. But
this is it's unique compared to these others.
It's about an inch long, and no other
insect has the combination of sort of stripes
and spots that it does. So when its
wings are folded, it looks kind of like
a khaki pink color. Then the front part
(16:18):
of the wing sort of closer to the
head, it does it looks like an alligator
skin purse. It's got this kind of crackled
appearance to it and then lots of speckles,
dots after that. When they open their wings,
as you approach them, they'll try to hop
and glide away. They are kinda fast and
they got these big spindly creepy legs. You'll
see behind those front wings, this sort of
stripe of red mixed with a a yellowy
(16:40):
color and white and black on the back
wings. No insect has this combination of colors
and spots and stripes that I've described besides
the lanternfly.
Upon closer inspection, you may also notice sort
of orange pom poms near its mouth area.
These are parts of its antenna,
and they look kind of teardrop shaped when
viewed in profile.
(17:01):
They will produce lots of honeydew, so you
may go on a hike on your property.
Maybe you're going to kind of a a
far flung corner of it or you're somewhere
that you don't normally go, and you may
look around and notice it looks like a
black blight
all over the ground. Like, all of the
plants that are underneath a certain tree will
be dying because of this fungus that's covering
them. If you look up, you'll probably find
(17:21):
the lanternfly there. So it'll smell and look
kinda weird. Beyond that, if you have trees
of heaven, a lot of them on your
property, that is a possible site. So I
would just keep an eye on those. And
then if you do see anything, the report
a pest email is the best way to
get ahold of us.
Yes. And, I know that a lot of
people listening to the podcast may have tree
(17:41):
of heaven, you know, around their farms and
maybe just not know exactly where they're located.
So like you said, scouting can really help.
Is there a certain time frame where this
pest is the the worst? I would expect
summertime, but I'm curious to hear if there's
a specific time that it's worst.
It's the most obvious, actually, kinda late in
the summer, early in the autumn when they've
(18:02):
reached adulthood and they're preparing to mate. They
overwinter as eggs. So the eggs will be
around from usually, like, October November of 1
year into about April or May of the
next year. Most people don't notice the nymphs.
They're kinda small and out of the way.
But in that August to September time frame,
you can, very easily see the adults. They're
(18:22):
large and in charge and kinda obvious. So
that's usually when when we start to see
an uptick in reports from in in other
states that have it.
Exactly. Well, I appreciate that information.
And I know we've covered a lot of
things just in this, it seems like it's
gone by really fast. I know I've I've
enjoyed talking about it even though it's kind
of a bad bug in here in Kentucky,
(18:44):
but, you know, how can people stay informed
about the latest developments in the kind of
basically the fight against the spotted lanternfly?
I would say people should follow their local
Extension Office Facebook pages,
check out the Cooperative Kentucky Cooperative Extension Facebook
page. These are the avenues that we pump
information out through. You know, here on campus,
(19:05):
if I were to have new finds of
spotted lanternfly get reported in, I would create
things and then push it out to the
agents, and the agents are the ones that
are gonna advertise it. We also put out
press releases. You it'll be on the news
if it happens again. But the other thing,
you can check out Kentucky Bugs. That's our
Facebook page. We post a lot of information
there, and you can look at our website,
(19:25):
the entomology
uky.edu
website,
and there will be information found there. We
also have an IntFACT, so that's one of
our fact sheets on this. It's 465,
and it's all about spotted lanternfly. It shows
you the look alikes, shows you the different
life stages of it, the things that it
infests, how to identify tree of heaven. I
think that's very handy for people who are
(19:47):
concerned with this one. Yes. And that's all
helpful publications and resources that we have available
through the extension service. So if you wanna
check those out, make sure you go to
the show notes for this episode
with doctor Larson. And, doctor Larson, you know,
you came
on it seems like it's been just a
couple years ago, but I know it's probably
been longer than what I wanna admit to.
(20:07):
But, you know, some for garden pests, Japanese
beetles, you mentioned today,
also, you know, ticks can be an issue
during the summer months as well
as the squash vine borer. And so if
some of our listeners wanna check out that
previous recording, it's summer garden pest, and it's
under the Sunshine Gardening podcast. Now doctor Larson,
I know I'm putting you on the spot
(20:28):
here, but you also have a podcast too.
Do you care to share with us more
about it?
Sure. I'm one of the 3 hosts of
Arthropod,
an entomology
podcast. It's just arthro
dash pod. We're on all the different podcaster
apps. We've just published a couple of different
episodes all about malaria.
You may have heard malaria was discovered in
Florida last year despite being eradicated from the
(20:51):
US some time ago. So we wanted to
kinda talk about the history of that. And
before that, we had cicadas.
We talked about all different kind we talked
about history of entomology,
entomology 101,
sort of hot topics as well. It's a
lot of fun for us, the 3 hosts,
to get together and just talk about bugs
for an hour or an hour and a
half. So who are the other hosts? Are
(21:12):
they other entomologists?
Yeah. There are other extension entomologists.
One of them is Michael Skavarla. He's at
Penn State University.
He's a diagnostician
there, so he would be, like, in the
plant diagnostic lab here. And then the other
one is my friend, Jody Green.
She's at Nebraska Extension. She's the county extension
educator there, and we all get together and
(21:33):
talk about all these things from kind of
an extension perspective. I feel that we're we're
pretty unique in the world of entomology
themed podcasts.
Well, I certainly appreciate you sharing about your
podcast. And if some of our listeners wanna,
you know, check that out, please do, and
we'll link it in the show notes as
well. Doctor. Larsen, it's always a joy to
get to talk to you and you're just,
(21:53):
you know, so full of life when we
start talking about
insects, both good and bad, and you all
do a great job, there on UK's campus,
especially with the entomology fact sheets. I know
we hand those out throughout the summer, you
know, even in the fall and early spring.
So kudos to you. I appreciate you being
on the podcast. We'll definitely have to have
you back again in the future. Thank you.
(22:14):
I appreciate all that. It's good to know
that things are getting used and I appreciate
the invite to be on here and thank
you for featuring spotted lanternfly. It's important for
people to hear more about. Yeah, now we
might have to have you back in the
future just to talk, give us another update.
Hopefully we can, you know, share this information
so that people are in the know about
this pest but certainly appreciate you being here
(22:34):
today.
That's a wrap on this episode of the
Sunshine Gardening podcast.
We hope you've gained valuable insights into the
spotted lanternfly
and how to protect your garden from this
invasive pest.
Remember, staying vigilant
and intervening
early are crucial for keeping your green spaces
(22:55):
healthy and thriving.
If you'd like to explore the publications
doctor Jonathan Larson
references in today's episode,
you can find the show notes for episode
33
on the blog at warrencountyagriculture.com.
If you enjoyed today's episode,
we would greatly appreciate it if you could
(23:15):
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Your reviews help us reach more people and
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Additionally, we would love to hear from you
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Your input is invaluable to us.
Remember to subscribe to our podcast for more
(23:37):
gardening insights and join us next time as
we explore new ways to cultivate the garden
of your dreams.
Until then,
happy gardening.
Thanks for listening to the Sunshine Gardening podcast
with Kristen Hildebrand.
If you enjoyed today's content, make sure to
hit the subscribe button wherever you get your
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(24:00):
Gardening podcast.
Gardeners keep on digging and learning more about
gardening so the sun shines brighter over your
Kentucky garden. The Sunshine Gardening podcast with Kristen
Hildebrand is a production of the University of
Kentucky Cooperative Extension
Service.
Welcome to the Sunshine Gardening Podcast. I'm Kristen
Hildebrand, your host. In today's episode, episode 33,
we focus on a troublesome
invasive insect called the spotted lanternfly.
Join us as we explore the implications
of its presence and learn practical ways to
keep our green spaces safe. Our special guest
(00:22):
for this discussion is doctor Jonathan Larson,
an entomologist from the University of Kentucky Extension
Service whose expertise has been crucial in understanding
and addressing the threats posed by invasive insect
species
like the spotted lanternfly.
Stay tuned as we delve into the world
of the spotted lanternfly
(00:42):
and arm you with the knowledge to defend
your green spaces.
Let's get started.
Welcome to the Sunshine Gardening podcast.
This gardening show will equip and inspire avid
gardeners with tips and tricks to help them
navigate the gardening world. The show will also
highlight specific growing requirements for seasonal plants so
(01:03):
the sun will shine brighter over their Kentucky
garden.
And now, here's that ray of sunshine,
garden enthusiast and horticulture
extension agent, Kristen Hildebrand
with the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service.
Welcome back to the Sunshine Gardening podcast. And
joining us with today is doctor Jonathan Larson.
(01:24):
Welcome, doctor Larson.
Thanks for having me. I I'm, very appreciative
of the invite.
Yes. I am so glad that you're here,
and I'm just gonna get right down to
business because, you know, back in October of
last year, we were at a agent in
service training, and you first told us that
this
invasive
insect, I guess a bad bug, was discovered
(01:47):
in Kentucky,
and we've kind of been on the alert
about it for a little while. You've been
monitoring it,
and so I wanted to kinda put the
alert out to everybody
that's listening to the podcast about this invasive
pest so that way that they can be
in the know and kinda watch for it
because, like you said, I'm hoping you can
give us some more information about the spotted
(02:07):
lanternfly.
So just to get our conversation going this,
today,
can you start by explaining a little bit
more about the spotted lanternfly
and why it's considered such an invasive pest?
Boy, can I? So with the spotted lanternfly,
it's a part of a really interesting group
of insects. We call them the fulgorid plant
hoppers, which sounds kinda like a band name.
(02:29):
It includes other luminary insects like the peanut
headed bug and a few others that have
kind of weird ornamentation
on their head. So it's kind of an
exclusive group of insects, but most of them,
they're just kinda out there jumping around, feeding
on plants. With this one, it's a non
native species from Asia that was accidentally introduced
here in the United States.
(02:50):
And ever since its introduction, it's been spreading
from Pennsylvania where it was first discovered.
And it's an issue because it feeds on
over 70 different species of plants. It produces
prodigious amounts of honeydew, which I'm sure we'll
get more into here in a few minutes.
It's the fecal material that insects that feed
on sap create, and this one makes a
lot of it. So we'll talk about poo,
(03:11):
I'm sure, here on this episode.
And it's also just kind of a a
startling organism, and it frightens people. It makes
them kinda nervous when they see it.
I was gonna say it's kind of a
a different looking kind of pest from some
of the other ones that we've had that
have kind of been in that same category
as invasive.
If you start to really look at it,
(03:32):
which we're about to, you know, tell a
little bit more about it, you know, it's
very different
as an adult versus, you know, it's in
mature stages.
Yeah. That's a good point. So when we
talk about this group of insects, the planthoppers,
they're a part of the true bugs. That
means that they have incomplete metamorphosis.
Usually, that means they look fairly similar throughout
their life cycle. For example, an aphid, it
(03:53):
looks like an aphid throughout most of its
life. It doesn't change a whole lot until
it reaches adulthood and maybe grows wings. With
this one, they actually change colors quite a
bit throughout their life. When they first hatch
from their eggs, they are black and white
with sort of polka dots. They look like
a reverse dalmatian.
And then as they age, they start to
get this kind of red war paint on
them. And when they become adults and get
(04:14):
their wings, their wings have this interesting sort
of alligator skin pattern on the front of
them and then dots on the back, and
they're brightly colored.
The back wings in particular have this big
red streak on them. And people mistake them
for butterflies and moths, this particular organism. Whenever
we post about it on Kentucky bugs, we
were like, well, do we have to kill
it? It's so pretty. I I kinda like
(04:34):
this one.
I was gonna say they I guess the
colorations
are, you know, very striking and that might
be why they made that comment, but I
guess if they know a little bit more
about the pest itself, then they would probably
wanna think otherwise.
But can you tell us a little bit
more about the spotted lanternfly,
like a little bit how it got to
the United States? I know you mentioned Pennsylvania
(04:55):
there, but maybe, you know, share how its,
you know, spread has impacted local
agriculture and ecosystems here. Absolutely. Yeah. In terms
of invasive species, you know, we have all
this globalized trade and travel nowadays,
and we just are shipping things all over,
it feels like. And a lot of our
pests that are invasive are coming from Asia
due to our sort of increased trade with,
(05:17):
countries on that continent
and the kind of match between our climate
and theirs.
And if you look at the spotted lanternfly,
historically, when people had talked about the there
was always kind of an assumption that it
came over on nursery stock, some imported trees
or shrubs that were gonna be planted. But
I was actually reading in preparation for this,
Cornell,
they have a whole publication on this one,
(05:37):
and they say it came over on rocks.
Somebody imported some rocks, and there were probably
eggs laid onto those rocks. And we'll talk
more about their egg laying proclivities and why
that's a problem.
And they weren't noticed. They blended right in,
and then the eggs hatched in Pennsylvania.
They were probably kind of loose in the
landscape in Pennsylvania for about 2 years between
(05:58):
2012
2014, I believe, before they were discovered
and identified, and then we established that they
were here. Since then, they've been spreading. They're
in lots of different states now. Last year,
2023 was a big year for the spotted
lanternfly. They jumped to, I think,
4 new states.
Illinois,
Kentucky,
Iowa, and Tennessee
(06:20):
all had new hits with it. Unfortunately, lays
its eggs on trees and shrubs that we
sell from one state to another. It'll lay
its eggs on trains, planes, and automobiles,
which can then go to new locations. And
if they hatch there, then we get a
new infestation. And they're also just really good
hitchhikers. They crawl up under the wheel wells
of semi trucks and cars,
(06:41):
and you are stopped at a gas station.
You accidentally pick 1 up. You take it
to the new spot, and you drop it
off, and then they get going there.
In terms of agricultural effects, the big thing
that they've impacted agriculture wise is grape production.
That's really the only sort of I don't
wanna say important commodity necessarily, but the major
economic commodity that they've impacted,
(07:02):
they can kill grapevines.
But beyond that, a lot of the other
plants that they feed on, they're trees. So
they're things that we have in our landscapes.
Maybe in tree nursery production, you might have
some impacts, but they rarely kill a lot
of plants. The main plants that they kill
are grapes and tree of heaven. Tree of
heaven is itself an invasive species, so I
don't really mind if it takes care of
(07:23):
a few of those for us. I was
gonna say, I know it really enjoys, like
you said, the the tree of heaven.
And some of the information that you had
for us in that October meeting for the
agent in service
was really interesting, like some of the pictures
that you shared of the spotted lanternfly, like,
covering, like, a lot of trees.
(07:44):
And didn't you say that sometimes it affects,
like, children's play if they're outside
in some of those states that you mentioned?
Yeah. Yeah. So this is an interesting invasive
species to me because, you know, you and
I, if we were talking about invasive species,
I think we would talk a lot about
something like Japanese beetle or emerald ash borer,
things that made, like, really obvious problems. Right?
Japanese beetle, it'll eat your whole garden up
(08:06):
if you let it. You've talked about it
before. I have no doubt. And then emerald
ash borer, you know, a whole genus of
trees, a very common street tree, they're just
dying by the dozens, by the 100. With
this one, it is a little more tricky
to talk about because it's not causing that
widespread devastation. You know, a soybean field isn't
gonna disappear because of spotted lanternfly. Corn isn't
being impacted.
(08:27):
But, yeah, people's enjoyment of the outdoors is
sort of reduced by this pest. They're big.
They're kinda weird looking. They get all over
the trees that people live near or play
near. One of the images I think you're
referring to, it's a there's a swing set
in a wagon, and they're not being used
because the tree is completely coated with spotted
lanternflies that are feeding. This goes on usually
(08:49):
for, like, a 2 to 3 year period
before they kind of wind down in the
area that they've infested.
They also are quite smelly. They will produce
this honeydew that I alluded to before.
As they feed, they're sucking sap out. Sap
is not very nutritious, doesn't have a lot
of minerals and nutrients in it, and so
they have to eat a lot of it.
They're constantly going to the bathroom. And as
(09:11):
this leaks out of their body, this is
called honeydew. It's very attractive to black sooty
mold, which produces kind of a a fermenting
odor a little bit, and it's all over
the place. It kills grass and tree and
shrubs and trees that are growing under the
tree that they've infested
and most people just don't want to smell
it or be around it. I was gonna
(09:31):
say, I can see how that would definitely
impact a lot of play if you have
that insect in the backyard. And like you
said, it's just kinda
weird looking in its own sort of way.
You know, you kinda said earlier that we
found this pest just in Sparta. Have have
there been other places in Kentucky that have
notified you of the spotted lanternfly?
(09:53):
Luckily, there's only the one infestation that we
know of over in Sparta, Kentucky. It's in
Gallatin County.
This is an interesting
situation, I would say, because normally we would
assume an invasive pest would pop up in,
you know, Louisville,
maybe Lexington, maybe Frankfort, maybe Bowling Green because
these are areas of commerce and trade.
We have had a lot of, sort of
near misses in the Bowling Green area, I
(10:15):
will say. There's been people that have tried
to report it from Mammoth Cave, and none
of those have have come true. One of
them was re really interesting because it featured
a a kid that downloaded an image from
Wikipedia
and showed it to his dad and said
that he took this picture
of the pest. And so it wasn't a
he was trying to be helpful, but he
(10:35):
he sort of lied. He didn't really have
a picture. We've never found it in the
Mammoth Cave area. I just wanna be clear
on that. There has been lots of people
that have gone out and surveyed for it.
So far, just that SPARTA find, which is
right across the river from the first find
in Indiana. That's how it ended up there
at first.
Yeah. I know when you first told us
about it, we were you know, it was
it was news, and I think at that
(10:57):
time, there was, like, alert that went out
on the media about it. So, doctor Larson,
can you describe some methods that are currently
used to help manage and maybe control spotted
glenoid populations?
I know you mentioned these other states, especially
Pennsylvania,
and with their grape industry. Maybe there's some
things you've learned from that state. For sure.
In Pennsylvania, the grape industry's there. You'll you'll
(11:20):
see publications about the the pyrethroid type insecticides
that you can use to kill them while
they're on the grapevine. So that would be
a contact insecticide that would go on top
of them. There are some systemic products that
we use in tree
protection. The big one there is dinotefuran
that is labeled for use here in the
state of Kentucky. We had an emergency label
prepared for it just in case it ever
(11:42):
showed up here, and now we're really primed
and ready for it. So if you inject
the tree or inject the soil around the
tree with that insecticide,
it's sucked up. And then when the spotted
lanternfly feeds on those trees, it will perish.
In Pennsylvania, they've tried to create trap trees.
So they go through in an area with
lots of tree of heaven, they kinda wipe
(12:02):
out all the small ones and they'll leave
a big one. Tree of heaven is notoriously
difficult to remove anyway, but they leave 1
or 2 of these big ones, They inject
it. And then as the SLF, as the
lanternflies show up, they feed on this sort
of poison tree. They die by the 1,000.
It hasn't gotten rid of it. I wanna
be clear on that, but it does mitigate
some of the problem.
(12:23):
Yes. And with that information, that dinotechlpirone,
if I if I pronounced that correctly, is
that something that homeowners can apply or does
an arborist have to to do that application?
Interestingly,
nowadays, this is a professional only product. It
used to be available on the homeowner market,
but that was changed about 2 summers ago.
Change at the EPA occurred, and so that
(12:44):
product is not available for homeowners to apply
themselves. But if you contact your local arborists,
they will have access to it and they
can inject it. Exactly, so if you need
to go to the treesaregood.org
website, you can check out who your certified
arborists are in the state of Kentucky.
I appreciate all that information, and Doctor. Larsen,
are there any effective preventative strategies that can
(13:05):
communities can implement to kinda help curve this
invasive pest too? I appreciate that question because,
you know, everybody wants to keep it away.
You can remove tree of heaven, our department
of forestry here on campus, as well as
the Kentucky State Forest
Service. These folks have guides to how to
get rid of it. It's not just a
chop and walk away kinda situation. It does
(13:27):
involve some herbicides usually. So cutting down on
tree of heaven cuts down on the recruitment
of spotted lanternfly. It is their preferred host
to feed on. They typically switch to it
later in their life cycle.
They don't have to, but they they like
to to feed on it. So that can
help, but really supporting monitoring efforts is the
biggest thing. So you'll see some traps usually
(13:48):
along the Ohio River corridor. I don't think
we have any deployed in your neck of
the woods, but these are traps that the
lanternflies will go into that we can monitor
for. Folks can also join our citizen science
effort to monitor for these invasive species. We
call it Kentucky keepers,
trying to keep Kentucky free of these types
of invasive pests. And you can learn about
(14:10):
that from the office of the state entomologist,
and you can sign up for a sign
in, and you'll download an app, survey 1,
2, 3, and you can actually go out
and report tree of heaven. You can go
out and take pictures and report suspected spotted
lanternflies.
If you don't wanna go through all that,
you can also submit photos to reportapest@uky.edu.
(14:31):
We get hundreds of images on that email
address of suspected lanternflies,
and I really appreciate it. None of them
have been spotted lanternfly except for the one
last year in Gallatin County, but we appreciate
everybody that takes a moment to submit those
photos because that means you're invested in sort
of preventing these invasive species.
Yeah. And we may link some of that
(14:52):
information that you just shared down in the
show notes for today's episode so that way,
if somebody does wanna be involved with those
particular projects, I know we've had a couple
of those kits kinda come through the office
from the entomology you said the entomology department?
So we have the entomology department and then
the office of the state entomologist. Kentucky is
unique.
Usually, the office of the state entomologist is
(15:14):
would be in the capital,
and Kentucky, by state law, the department chair
of our department gets to be the state
entomologist.
Oh, interesting.
Okay. Well, I know the business card was
in with that kit so that can be
kinda confusing at times. Yes.
Now I know earlier on you mentioned a
little bit about how the characteristics
(15:35):
for spotted lanternfly, but to an average Joe
person, is there a certain, like, identify,
you know, identifier that's really good for spotted
lanternfly, especially, like, the infestations,
and what should they do if they find
1 on their property? I know you just
kinda mentioned some of those. Absolutely. If you
are looking at insects and you're concerned it
could be a lanternfly,
(15:56):
there are look alikes. The leopard moth kinda
looks like it. The milkweed bugs and box
elder bugs sometimes get confused for it. But
this is it's unique compared to these others.
It's about an inch long, and no other
insect has the combination of sort of stripes
and spots that it does. So when its
wings are folded, it looks kind of like
a khaki pink color. Then the front part
(16:18):
of the wing sort of closer to the
head, it does it looks like an alligator
skin purse. It's got this kind of crackled
appearance to it and then lots of speckles,
dots after that. When they open their wings,
as you approach them, they'll try to hop
and glide away. They are kinda fast and
they got these big spindly creepy legs. You'll
see behind those front wings, this sort of
stripe of red mixed with a a yellowy
(16:40):
color and white and black on the back
wings. No insect has this combination of colors
and spots and stripes that I've described besides
the lanternfly.
Upon closer inspection, you may also notice sort
of orange pom poms near its mouth area.
These are parts of its antenna,
and they look kind of teardrop shaped when
viewed in profile.
(17:01):
They will produce lots of honeydew, so you
may go on a hike on your property.
Maybe you're going to kind of a a
far flung corner of it or you're somewhere
that you don't normally go, and you may
look around and notice it looks like a
black blight
all over the ground. Like, all of the
plants that are underneath a certain tree will
be dying because of this fungus that's covering
them. If you look up, you'll probably find
(17:21):
the lanternfly there. So it'll smell and look
kinda weird. Beyond that, if you have trees
of heaven, a lot of them on your
property, that is a possible site. So I
would just keep an eye on those. And
then if you do see anything, the report
a pest email is the best way to
get ahold of us.
Yes. And, I know that a lot of
people listening to the podcast may have tree
(17:41):
of heaven, you know, around their farms and
maybe just not know exactly where they're located.
So like you said, scouting can really help.
Is there a certain time frame where this
pest is the the worst? I would expect
summertime, but I'm curious to hear if there's
a specific time that it's worst.
It's the most obvious, actually, kinda late in
the summer, early in the autumn when they've
(18:02):
reached adulthood and they're preparing to mate. They
overwinter as eggs. So the eggs will be
around from usually, like, October November of 1
year into about April or May of the
next year. Most people don't notice the nymphs.
They're kinda small and out of the way.
But in that August to September time frame,
you can, very easily see the adults. They're
(18:22):
large and in charge and kinda obvious. So
that's usually when when we start to see
an uptick in reports from in in other
states that have it.
Exactly. Well, I appreciate that information.
And I know we've covered a lot of
things just in this, it seems like it's
gone by really fast. I know I've I've
enjoyed talking about it even though it's kind
of a bad bug in here in Kentucky,
(18:44):
but, you know, how can people stay informed
about the latest developments in the kind of
basically the fight against the spotted lanternfly?
I would say people should follow their local
Extension Office Facebook pages,
check out the Cooperative Kentucky Cooperative Extension Facebook
page. These are the avenues that we pump
information out through. You know, here on campus,
(19:05):
if I were to have new finds of
spotted lanternfly get reported in, I would create
things and then push it out to the
agents, and the agents are the ones that
are gonna advertise it. We also put out
press releases. You it'll be on the news
if it happens again. But the other thing,
you can check out Kentucky Bugs. That's our
Facebook page. We post a lot of information
there, and you can look at our website,
(19:25):
the entomology
uky.edu
website,
and there will be information found there. We
also have an IntFACT, so that's one of
our fact sheets on this. It's 465,
and it's all about spotted lanternfly. It shows
you the look alikes, shows you the different
life stages of it, the things that it
infests, how to identify tree of heaven. I
think that's very handy for people who are
(19:47):
concerned with this one. Yes. And that's all
helpful publications and resources that we have available
through the extension service. So if you wanna
check those out, make sure you go to
the show notes for this episode
with doctor Larson. And, doctor Larson, you know,
you came
on it seems like it's been just a
couple years ago, but I know it's probably
been longer than what I wanna admit to.
(20:07):
But, you know, some for garden pests, Japanese
beetles, you mentioned today,
also, you know, ticks can be an issue
during the summer months as well
as the squash vine borer. And so if
some of our listeners wanna check out that
previous recording, it's summer garden pest, and it's
under the Sunshine Gardening podcast. Now doctor Larson,
I know I'm putting you on the spot
(20:28):
here, but you also have a podcast too.
Do you care to share with us more
about it?
Sure. I'm one of the 3 hosts of
Arthropod,
an entomology
podcast. It's just arthro
dash pod. We're on all the different podcaster
apps. We've just published a couple of different
episodes all about malaria.
You may have heard malaria was discovered in
Florida last year despite being eradicated from the
(20:51):
US some time ago. So we wanted to
kinda talk about the history of that. And
before that, we had cicadas.
We talked about all different kind we talked
about history of entomology,
entomology 101,
sort of hot topics as well. It's a
lot of fun for us, the 3 hosts,
to get together and just talk about bugs
for an hour or an hour and a
half. So who are the other hosts? Are
(21:12):
they other entomologists?
Yeah. There are other extension entomologists.
One of them is Michael Skavarla. He's at
Penn State University.
He's a diagnostician
there, so he would be, like, in the
plant diagnostic lab here. And then the other
one is my friend, Jody Green.
She's at Nebraska Extension. She's the county extension
educator there, and we all get together and
(21:33):
talk about all these things from kind of
an extension perspective. I feel that we're we're
pretty unique in the world of entomology
themed podcasts.
Well, I certainly appreciate you sharing about your
podcast. And if some of our listeners wanna,
you know, check that out, please do, and
we'll link it in the show notes as
well. Doctor. Larsen, it's always a joy to
get to talk to you and you're just,
(21:53):
you know, so full of life when we
start talking about
insects, both good and bad, and you all
do a great job, there on UK's campus,
especially with the entomology fact sheets. I know
we hand those out throughout the summer, you
know, even in the fall and early spring.
So kudos to you. I appreciate you being
on the podcast. We'll definitely have to have
you back again in the future. Thank you.
(22:14):
I appreciate all that. It's good to know
that things are getting used and I appreciate
the invite to be on here and thank
you for featuring spotted lanternfly. It's important for
people to hear more about. Yeah, now we
might have to have you back in the
future just to talk, give us another update.
Hopefully we can, you know, share this information
so that people are in the know about
this pest but certainly appreciate you being here
(22:34):
today.
That's a wrap on this episode of the
Sunshine Gardening podcast.
We hope you've gained valuable insights into the
spotted lanternfly
and how to protect your garden from this
invasive pest.
Remember, staying vigilant
and intervening
early are crucial for keeping your green spaces
(22:55):
healthy and thriving.
If you'd like to explore the publications
doctor Jonathan Larson
references in today's episode,
you can find the show notes for episode
33
on the blog at warrencountyagriculture.com.
If you enjoyed today's episode,
we would greatly appreciate it if you could
(23:15):
leave a review on your favorite podcast platform.
Your reviews help us reach more people and
show that you value our information.
Additionally, we would love to hear from you
if you have any questions, feedback, or
suggestions for future episodes.
Your input is invaluable to us.
Remember to subscribe to our podcast for more
(23:37):
gardening insights and join us next time as
we explore new ways to cultivate the garden
of your dreams.
Until then,
happy gardening.
Thanks for listening to the Sunshine Gardening podcast
with Kristen Hildebrand.
If you enjoyed today's content, make sure to
hit the subscribe button wherever you get your
podcast to catch future segments of the Sunshine
(24:00):
Gardening podcast.
Gardeners keep on digging and learning more about
gardening so the sun shines brighter over your
Kentucky garden. The Sunshine Gardening podcast with Kristen
Hildebrand is a production of the University of
Kentucky Cooperative Extension
Service.
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