As spotted lanternfly (SLF) continue to advance throughout the region, we are increasingly fielding calls and emails about what you can do to help stave off the worst of their impacts and protect areas around your home that you frequent. Here, we provide some strategies that do not require the use of pesticides. 1. First and foremost, don’t panic. For the average homeowner, SLF is considered to be primarily a nuisance pest and should not represent a threat to kill most native trees they feed on unless in rare circumstances. 2. Check your property for the presence of tree of heaven, Ailanthus altissima, which is SLF’s primary host tree. 3. Consider installing a circle trap on tree-of-heaven to help with control. We have been deploying traps strategically throughout the region since 2021 and can recommend this approach as a good early detection and management tool. You can find instructions on how to build and install these traps here
4. This year, we have been using battery operated backpack vacuums with clear, removable canisters (not bags!) for harvesting SLF from the environment (mostly on the leaves of vines and tree of heaven that SLF prefer). SLF sucked into these vacuum canisters should be immediately disposed of in Ziploc bags with a squirt of hand sanitizer and sealed to prevent spread through the waste management system. 5. SLF deposit their eggs on trees and other hard surfaces in late fall in our region. You can scrape their egg masses into Ziploc bags, add a squirt of hand sanitizer, seal and dispose. Under most scenarios, pesticides are not the first recommended approach to management, although there are possible options you can discuss with a licensed applicator including removal of tree of heaven from your property (which typically requires the use of herbicide as tree of heaven is an aggressive resprouter - cutting it down without follow-up management can make matters worse so please consult a licensed professional!). For a full summary of these treatment options and more, please visit Cornell University’s Integrated Pest Management website.
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