Spotted lanternflies, the pests that invaded Staten Island and the rest of the Tristate area last year, are expected to arrive early in New York this spring, according to a recent report.
Experts at the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets recently told News Channel 4 New York that the spotted lanternfly timeline could be accelerated, due to the warmer temperatures during the early weeks of spring and as temperatures continue to climb.
“In fact, with the warmer weather New York State is facing, we expect that SLF [spotted lanternfly] may hatch earlier this year, within the next month or even sooner, in NYC, Long Island, and the Hudson Valley,” Chris Logue, director of plant industry, told the media outlet.
The insects spend the winter as eggs and hatch in the early spring, so now is the time for residents to look for egg masses around their property and in parks, Logue told the Advance/SILive.com earlier this month.
Since the lanternflies, native to southeast Asia, have already established a population on the Island, and the insects seemed to be producing at an alarming rate in recent years, removing egg masses will keep the numbers down when the eggs hatch, Logue said.
Brian Eshenaur, who studies invasive species at Cornell College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and New York State Integrated Pest Management, told News 4 that the hatching of spotted lanternfly eggs could be bumped up to early May.
“With that jumpstart, it also means they could become adult spotted lanternflies (the stage we all recognize) sooner. So, they may occur earlier than we would normally see them, which is about the third week in July,” said Eshenaur to News 4.
In their early stage, the invasive pests are often mistaken for ticks. They have spots and don’t develop their signature red wings until fall, according to the Cornell College of Agriculture and Life Science in Ithaca, N.Y.
In fact, though it’s common to see photos of lanternflies in flight with wings spread, showing off the colorful crimson, it is much more common to see them resting on tree bark, blending in with their surroundings, with black-spotted, pinkish-tan wings folded over their back.
And though they don’t sting or bite, homeowners should be cautious of the damage they do to trees when they feed off them. Lanternflies can only survive for 48 hours without feeding on a plant, so ready-made traps are effective at reducing their numbers.
Source: silive.com
Photo Credit: pennsylvania-department-of-agriculture
Categories: New York, Crops