Nature Done Wright

The Clove at High Mountain is one of my favorite spots. The ravine has many Trees of Heaven, which are the host for the invasive Spotted Lanternfly.

I had seen none when I visited a few weeks to go. When my wife Patty and I visited yesterday, the Trees of Heaven had hundreds of the buggers.

The lanternflies were easy to find. The Nature Conservancy put blue tape around all the trees (a.k.a. Ailanthus) as part of a plan to cut them down this fall, and lanternflies abounded on all of them.

We tried to reduce the population a tad. As a friend suggested, a good old-fashioned fly swatter works best.  That said, I did feel hesitant at times to squash so many of these crop-destroying bugs.

Long term, crushing the egg masses may be more productive.  Whatever people do, I hope they refrain from using chemicals and sticky tape, which kill indiscriminately and probably do far more harm than good.

This recent article in The New York Times was helpful.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/21/nyregion/lanternfly-bugs.html?searchResultPosition=1