It’s hard to believe that I had never heard of the spotted lanternfly until—was it only last year? No, it must have been 2021 at the latest, when spotted lanternflies saw their first mention in this newsletter. Now the bugs are seemingly everywhere: on my tomato and pepper plants, on sidewalks and apartment buildings, and all over my TikTok FYP.
Not since we started cutting the plastic rings that hold our six-packs together has the American public—at least in the 16 states in which these pests are found—been so united in a single environmental cause: Smoosh the bastards. Or vacuum them up. Or douse them in vinegar.
As a responsible citizen, I, too, heeded the call to stomp the invasive spotted lanternfly on sight—although to be quite honest most of the specimens I’ve seen this year had already been dispatched by some other foot. I don’t take pleasure in it, like some profess. But I saw it as a necessary evil, to save the trees and to protect American crops.
I have debated the ethics of this indescriminate slaughter with my boyfriend, who was always skeptical of the campaign to murder lanternflies, fervently objects to senseless loss of life, and is generally more comfortable with the presence of invasive species than others.
But nothing really gave me pause until this news item came across one of my social media timelines this week:
Penn State study says spotted lanternflies don’t damage trees, forests
Um, what?
The good news is, the spotted lanternfly may not be as harmful as initially thought. The bad news is that various agricultural schools and state and federal agencies may have whipped the public into an insecticidal frenzy for next-to-nothing?
I did a little more digging.
The Cornell College of Agriculture and Life Sciences confirms:
Spotted lanternflies do not appear to be damaging trees or most agricultural crops. In natural and residential areas, they feed on Tree of heaven (Ailanthus), black walnut, maples (they will preferentially feed on silver maple, then red maple), willow, river birch, black cherry, tulip poplar, and other trees.
They don’t seem to be causing significant damage to agricultural crops such as hops, apples, or peaches, but the issue is still being studied.
The one notable exception to this is that indeed, spotted lanternflies seem to be pretty bad for grape vines, especially in large numbers, but even that concern may be overblown.
This latest study really throws cold water on the frothy paranoia of the past few years, exemplified by this article by the Fish & Wildlife Service, which called the spotted lanternfly “a major threat to the ecosystem health and to important regional agricultural economies” and used inflamatory phrases like “leaving destruction in its wake,” “Disaster lurks,” and “Appetite for destruction.” And it contradicts their allegation that the spotted lanternfly “causes harm to native trees and forests, potentially destroying habitat for countless species” including bats, birds, mammals, and reptiles.
Will I stop stomping? I don’t know yet. If the spotted lanternfly poses an existential threat to wineries and grape growers, maybe protecting that industry and its important cultural product is worth a little (a lot) of insecticide?
Then again, perhaps Nature has already taken the issue into her own hands: The recent Penn State study shows trees can recover and withstand a constant onslaught of lanternflies. Recently, I’ve seen videos of praying mantises snacking on lanternflies for dinner, and bees ripping their wings off. (TIL that there’s a spotted lanternfly honey made by bees that collect the sugary spotted-lanternfly excretion called honeydew.)
What I’m left pondering, then, is humanity’s “appetite for destruction.” It seems that all of our pent-up energy and collective desire to do good by the environment—by the ecosystems we live in and near—is best and most easily channeled into mass slaughter. How sad is that?
Reading list
“As long as we continue to bake our planet, our job security is intact.” A vivid first-person account of what it’s like helping Coco Gauff, Novak Djokovic, and other tennis stars keep cool at the US Open. [Ethan Davison for Hell Gate]
Hot springs v. renewable energy [Hiroko Tabuchi for the New York Times]1
Why we have to confront the possibility of worst-case climate scenarios, not in a Doomer way, but to bring necessary urgency to climate action. [David Spratt for The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists]
Yes, I have been hoarding links since March.
Pardon the cringe-worthy piety, but spotted lantern flies did not invade, we brought them here, either by intent or negligence. And having brought them here, our answer is to kill them? What does that say of us? And for what sin must they be crushed? That they inconvenience us?
I never understood how anybody could think teaching small children to stomp on beautiful insects is a good idea. People who have never done anything for the environment seem to be getting such sick pleasure from stomping on spotted lantern flies. I’ve seen trees wrapped in sticky traps that apparently are capturing lots of pollinators and birds that stick to them die a slow tortuous death. It horrifies me. most invasions right themselves if we leave them alone. We humans have done so much damage to the environment and there are so many more important things we could be doing to help the environment like driving less, ordering less crap from Amazon and eating less meat etc. etc. etc. I’m so glad to see the tide is turning on this issue.