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Spotted Lanternflies Have Been Seen in Central Park and They’re ‘Bad News’

August 20, 2021 | 1:04 PM - Updated on August 21, 2021 | 6:44 AM
in NEWS, OUTDOORS
22
Spotted lanternfly. Photograph by Olivia Henderson.

By Carol Tannenhauser

How worried should we be about this new bug in town called the spotted lanternfly?

First of all, it is not harmful to humans, pets, or livestock. It is a major threat, however, to many fruit crops and trees, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The NYC Parks Department clarified: “The Spotted Lanternfly does not kill trees it infests,” a spokesperson told WSR. “Although it can infest trees and weaken them if the infestation is bad, they are mostly a threat to agricultural crops.”

Second, they’re not going to involve anything resembling Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds. The name is aspirational. Spotted lanternflies — SLF, as the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) refers to them —  don’t actually fly; they hop on the wind from leaf to leaf, or onto pieces of firewood, outdoor furniture, or other things humans move around — like ocean liners.

In 2018, The New York Times called SLF “an invasive pest with a voracious appetite and remarkable reproductive talents.” They had first appeared in Pennsylvania in 2014. “Despite a quarantine effort, they have also been discovered in small numbers in New York, Delaware and Virginia,” The Times continued. By August, 2020, they had “spread in fluttering hordes to Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey,” The Times reported, and to Staten Island, the DEC said. This August, CBS New York announced, “They’ve moved to Manhattan…now in larger numbers in neighborhoods a hop, skip and jump from Central Park.”

On Thursday, August 19, a spokesperson for the Central Park Conservancy, which maintains Central Park, confirmed in an email to WSR, that SLF “have been spotted in the Park and they are bad news.” However, she added, “The Park is not home to a large number of the types of trees that serve as hosts for the Spotted Lanternfly. The Ailanthus is the main host tree, and we have less than 50 in the Park.”

Spotted lanternflies have also been seen on the Upper West Side. “I have twice now spotted the incredibly invasive Spotted Lanternfly on our 14th floor terrace,” said Olivia Henderson, who lives on West 72nd Street, between CPW and Columbus. “One sighting was a dead one, on 7/29 (that’s when we initially looked into it, we’d never seen a bug like that before!), and once yesterday (one flew up and landed on the back of the building, just a little too high for me to kill it unfortunately). And then today, 8/14, I killed one in Central Park!! I was seated outside at Tavern-to-Go and one landed near us.” (See picture above.)

How bad is it? And what is being done to defeat these bugs?

The DEC explains that SLF “pose a significant threat to New York’s agricultural and forest health. Adults and nymphs use their sucking mouthparts to feed on the sap of more than 70 plant species. This feeding by sometimes thousands of Spotted Lanternflies (SLF) stresses plants, making them vulnerable to disease and attacks from other insects. SLF also excrete large amounts of sticky “honeydew,” which attracts sooty molds that interfere with plant photosynthesis, negatively affecting the growth and fruit yield of plants. New York’s annual yield of apples and grapes has a combined value of $358.4 million, which could be greatly impacted by SLF. The full extent of economic damage this insect could cause is unknown at this time.”

And that doesn’t factor in the damage to beloved backyards, parks, and natural landscapes, and our enjoyment of them.

Combating SLF will take a grassroots effort. The instructions across the board are to kill them on sight. It may go against your grain, but you must, as Gothamist put it, “Destroy them! If you spot a live one, you should squash it while shouting, ‘Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds!'”

To quell any qualms, the Parks Department released the following statement: “Harming our city’s wildlife is prohibited, but in an effort to slow the spread of this troublesome species, we are putting out a one-time call: if you see a Spotted Lanternfly, please squish and dispose of this invasive pest. New Yorkers should also report findings to NYC Parks by emailing Forest.Health@parks.nyc.gov. Please include photos, location of infestation, and details of property damage. Please also report the finding to NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets here.”

Now is the time to do it, because the bugs are adults and more easily seen, and because they will mate in the early fall and lay eggs. The adults will die in December, which leaves us not only worried about their progeny, but how much damage they will do in the meantime, and where they might hitch a ride to next. So far, WSR has gotten no reports of SLF in other parks or gardens in the neighborhood.

“Scientists and officials in several East Coast states are battling the bugs on multiple fronts,” The New York Times said. “In Pennsylvania, the Spotted Lanternfly Program includes representatives from Penn State, the state’s Department of Agriculture, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. The program takes a multipronged approach, with various teams focused on management techniques, the lanternfly’s reproductive biology and potential biological control agents.” In 2019, however, “the Trump Administration dismantled the Invasive Species Advisory Committee and halved the funding for the National Invasive Species Council….”

 

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Lisa
Lisa
1 year ago

Finally, something I can take my aggression out on for a good cause.

0
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Regina Barba
Regina Barba
1 year ago
Reply to  Lisa

😂

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Reply
LivableCity
LivableCity
1 year ago

So gorgeous – great outfit. But as a threat to those upstate/ H valley apples and other crops we love? Noooh thank you! An outfit to die (or kill) for.

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Reply
Nick
Nick
1 year ago

I’m pretty sure we can blame New Jersey for this…

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Reply
John
John
1 year ago

I killed about 7 of them today in my backyard; btw I live in Morris Plains, New Jersey. There are a lot of them.

0
Reply
Susan charset
Susan charset
1 year ago
Reply to  John

Not all hero’s wear capes.

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Reply
Lianne Ritchie
Lianne Ritchie
1 year ago

YIKES…

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Reply
Farnham Maxwell
Farnham Maxwell
1 year ago

Spotted..the Spotted laternfly

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Reply
Ethan
Ethan
1 year ago

I found one that had landed on my neck just outside of Nice Matin about ten days ago.

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Reply
Diane
Diane
1 year ago

So, WHAT ARE, the Management Techniques? What can I do at home,,???

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Reply
Ken
Ken
1 year ago

My wife & I saw one in Riverside Park along Crab Apple Walk — we didn’t know what it was so left it alone. But no longer, yes, I am Death…

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Reply
Herb
Herb
1 year ago

I saw one on my roof garden yesterday!

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Reply
James
James
1 year ago

I saw one on my roof deck last week (92nd &WEA). If I had known what it was it would have been goners. Next time for sure.

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Reply
Peter Mobijohn
Peter Mobijohn
1 year ago

I saw one hiding in my wife’s draws!

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Reply
Paul
Paul
1 year ago
Reply to  Peter Mobijohn

As Groucho once said, “ how that elephant got into my pajamas, I’ll never know.”

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Reply
dc
dc
1 year ago
Reply to  Peter Mobijohn

In her what? Drawer? Inside the apartment? Ugh.

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Reply
Phoebe
Phoebe
1 year ago

I know there’s a fine for killing a praying mantis.,

But no way could I kill a beautiful creature such as this.

Is there a fine for not killing?

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Reply
jezbel
jezbel
1 year ago

These bugs don’t stay beautiful. They start as a black bug with red dots on it’s shield shaped back – no wings. They jump or hop from person to person and leaf to leaf. Then they become red with black dots, then they change again into the moth-like thing below but they still don’t actually fly. They act creepy and if they get on any plants that are slightly sweet, flowers or fruit they will sap the life out of it. It not uncommon to find plants and trees with hundreds of thousand of these bugs. Then they turn brown and really do their worst damage on trees, killing them slowly by extracting all the sweet sap and injecting them with poison. They’ll kill large flowering plants too. They’ll swarm late in fall on trees and spin their sticky webs as they go into the dormant phase. If you see them kill them. They are NOT indigenous to this country and kill plants they light on. They are invasive species and very harmful.

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Reply
Lawrence Braverman
Lawrence Braverman
1 year ago

A dramatically interesting-looking pest… in that, she reminds me of a neighbor I once had except for the wings of course.

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Reply
jezbel
jezbel
1 year ago

Extra background on the spotted lantern fly from local Philly news source:
https://billypenn.com/2021/08/23/philadelphia-spotted-lanternflies-disappearing-moving-north-invasive/

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anarchitect
anarchitect
1 year ago

I’m seeing dozens all over my highrise in midtown west by the water. Plenty of them in flight too, despite what the article said.
In the meantime keep your windows closed! Two ended up inside my apartment before I wised up.
The birds seem excited at least, here’s hoping they gorge on them before they mate and multiply…
Happy hunting!

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Reply
SME
SME
1 year ago

I killed one today on Amsterdam near the Lincoln Center Parking lot. I didn’t think they would get here so quickly!!

0
Reply

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