“Kill it! Squash it, smash it ... just get rid of it.” Kill-on-sight requests are a part of public campaigns to fight the spotted lanternfly, an invasive insect present around much of the eastern United States.
When Stephen Nixon recently noticed a “beautiful” spotted lanternfly by his bag as he skateboarded in Brooklyn, he heeded the request of city officials.“I don’t like killing things. Not many people do. I’ll catch and release cockroaches if I find them in my apartment,” Nixon said. But he said it “seems like something worse” if the insect’s population explodes.
The insect has been able to spread so far, so fast because it is a stealthy hitchhiker. Drivers this time of year unwittingly give lifts to adults, which look like moths, perched inside trunks, on wheel wells or on bumpers. In Pennsylvania, residents in quarantined counties are asked to check for the pests on dozens of items — ranging from their vehicles, to camping gear to lumber and shrubs — before heading to non-quarantined destinations.And if you see one? Show no mercy.
“I came back and I said to my partner, ‘You know, I saw a spotted lanternfly,’” Estes said, “and she was like, ‘Oh, I’m sure there’s more. Let’s go look.’”Her partner, an entomologist, put four in a plastic bottle to show co-workers on campus what they look like. They killed at least a dozen more. Many were massed on trees of heaven.Infestations in New York state had been concentrated in the metropolitan area, but have spread close to the state’s wine-growing vineyards.