<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3hHgxK_0vkDGBNm00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3hHgxK_0vkDGBNm00" width="435" height="500" ><figcaption>JMU Biology Professor Janet Daniel said it’s concerning how much the invasive spotted lanternfly has increased in presence. Adam Tabet | The Breeze</figcaption></figure>Planthoppers resembling moths with red spotted wings have been seen across JMU’s campus: they’re the invasive spotted lanternfly.The spotted lanternflies can be found on sidewalks, roads and paths throughout JMU and Harrisonburg, dead and alive. However, if seen, these invasive bugs shouldn’t be left alone — the insects should be destroyed if found in any life stage, according to a checklist from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Keala Timko, the volunteer coordinator for the Central Shenandoah Valley Master Gardeners Association (CSVMGA), said the lanternflies excrete a sugary substance known as honeydew that ferments and causes plants around the area to become covered in a “black, sooty mold.” The substance then damages the plants as a pathogen. Plants could become infected and, ultimately, be at risk of dying due to a decreased ability to photosynthesize.Biology professor Janet Daniel said it’s concerning how much the insect’s presence has increased.“I have seen smushed ones walking around downtown, so people are definitely actively stomping them out,” Daniel said. “That part of the public message has definitely gotten about them because it’s not a very intuitive thing to squash a bug like that.”Junior biology major Chelsey Halterman, who lives on the border of Harrisonburg and Rockingham County, said she’s seen many spotted lanternflies at her house’s entryway, making it difficult to get inside. To keep these bugs away from her house, she said she made her own insect repellent mixture of natural ingredients that she puts outside her front door.“I’ve been trying a concoction of lavender oil and peppermint oil because I know that peppermint oil is a natural repellant,” Halterman said. “I just mixed them both up and that seemed to help as far as repel them away.”Halterman said this helped for two to three days until it rained, and the mixture of oils washed away. With fall approaching, the spotted lanternflies are about to start laying egg masses. The checklist says the egg masses are found from September to June. Timko said the best ways to get rid of egg masses from spotted lanternflies are to scrape them off, smash them or drown them. She added that any tool with an edge, such as a credit card or a knife, could be used to scrape them off. The egg masses have a putty-like consistency.Adult lanternflies die during the winter, but the egg masses survive the cold, Timko said. These eggs can be found anywhere outside, from trees to the underside of cars, she added, and the masses contain about 30 to 40 eggs. “The best control for these is human intervention,” Timko said. “The easiest time to get rid of them is when they are in the egg mass form because they’re not moving.”Spotted lanternflies aren’t native to the U.S., rather to Asia, according to the USDA. The insects were first detected in Pennsylvania in 2014 and have continued to spread since then, according to the same source. Timko said these lanternflies arrived on a shipment of stone to the U.S.“I think we’re going to be doing the same thing with the spotted lanternfly that we have done with the brown marmorated stink bug, the Japanese beetle and the spongy moth,” Timko said. “We’re just going to have to learn how to deal with it.”</div></body>

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NewsBreak

Rise in local invasive insect population prompts community action, prevention

Planthoppers resembling moths with red spotted wings have been seen across JMU’s campus: they’re the invasive spotted lanternfly. The spotted lanternflies can be found on sidewalks, roads and paths throughout JMU and Harrisonburg, dead and alive. However, if seen, these invasive bugs shouldn’t be left alone — the insects should be destroyed if found in any life stage, according to a checklist from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).