State agricultural departments across the United States are asking you to commit murder — bug murder, that is.
Your victim: the spotted lanternfly, or Lycorma delicatula, a beautiful creature with large brownish gray wings with black spots that open to reveal striking red underwings.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it: “Kill it! Squash it, smash it … just get rid of it,” pleads the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture on a website alert.
Native to China, the invasive bug was first detected stateside in Berks County, Pennsylvania, in 2014. With no natural predators in the US, lanternflies have since spread to numerous counties and adjacent states, including Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Virginia.
Why the call for mass bugicide? After all, the striking insects aren’t venomous, and don’t even bite humans or pets.
What spotted lanternflies do instead is suck the life out of many species of trees and plants, including those that people rely on for food and livelihood, such as grapes, apples and hops. The situation has been so severe in Pennsylvania that the state could lose about 2,800 jobs and $324 million annually if the invasive pest is not contained soon, economists from Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences have predicted.
The hunt to track and kill each and every lanternfly fugitive is so intense Pennsylvania officials set up a hotline to report sightings: 1-888-4BADFLY.
“The bugs are hitchhikers,” said entomologist Gene Kritsky, dean of the school of behavioral and natural sciences at Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati. “If you should visit an area where the spotted lanternfly has been found, you should inspect your vehicle and clothing to make sure you have not given one a ride. This can help slow down their spread.”
Other states are buzzing with worry as the pesky predator invades their counties. Connecticut, Indiana, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia have all reported sightings, but “most states are considered at risk,” according to the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
The voracious bug will likely even reach California’s wine country by 2033 if current methods fail to stop the spread, scientists have predicted.
In parts of the …….