Spotted Lanternfly (Lycorma delicatula) now in NY and NJ and spreading fast

Our New Jersey town is currently plagued with Spotted Lanternfly and it’s only going to get worse. They are an invasive from China, Vietnam, India that are now established in the US having arrived in Pennsylvania in 2014. Until recently, I had only heard of them through the volunteer work I do for NYNJ Trail Conference. They started a program using sniffer dogs to find the eggs and lavae. Here’s an article from December 2019 and an update last month which goes into a lot of detail about what they are and the damage they do.

The first time my son saw one, he just thought it was a pretty bug. They’re certainly unusual with spotted wings and bright flash of red when they jump/fly. I say jump/fly, because that’s what they do, like a cricket, except faster than a cockroach. Alas my neighbours vine is covered in them and they’ve already done extensive damage. They’re very hard to squish as they move so fast. I try and bat them of onto the drive and then stamp on them.

I’ve read they like The Tree of Heaven which is another invasive here but they also attack many fruit trees and vines. Alas, I’m sure we’re going to hear a lot about these critters in the coming few years.

I am in upstate NY, Upper Delaware area, in Narrowsburg. We have fruit trees here and the spotted lanternfly was just sighted for the first time this year. I would love to hear about how other organic/permaculturists are managing these critters. I read online that they are attracted to milkweed, but it is also toxic to them, so planting more is beneficial. But as far as managing them when they're everywhere--- what are other options? I've also heard chickens/wasps/preying mantis. Any and all advise would be very helpful! Thank you!

Permaculture way for the win. When you compare a diverse habitat that encourages predators with a monocrop ‘protected’ with herbicides and insecticides then the permaculture has a fighting chance.

So keep growing lots of different things and flowers and encourage wasps.

I'm right between the Lehigh Valley and the Poconos in PA.  Where I live, we've had laternfly for three years.  Last year was really bad, but there weren't as many this year.  

I've talked to a few gardeners and one professional orchardist and everyone seems to have made the same observation--there were way more preying mantises this year.  I noticed a lot of egg cases last winter, which was a little unusual, but weather's been weird and whatever.  Then, this summer they were everywhere.  I usually see one or two over the course of the summer, they've never been very prolific in my garden, but this year I had a dozen or more in my garden patches.  Most seemed to hang out near the lanternflies' favorite foods--grape vines and sunflowers.  The mantises really liked the bean vines, too, probably because there were a lot of stink bugs snacking on bean pods this year.

I don't have chickens, but I've been told by two different people that chickens won't eat the lanternflies at any stage.  Not a good sample size, and this was in 2019 (when they were pretty new to the Lehigh Valley), so they may have learned to eat them since then.

S Tonin wrote:Most seemed to hang out near the lanternflies' favorite foods--grape vines and sunflowers.

Thank you - great to hear of your experience over three years.

So maybe plant sacrificial beans and sunflowers together with squash for an alternative ‘three sisters’.