Weeds - Part 8: Ailanthus Altissima and related pest - Spotted Lanternfly
Some thoughts on weeds at Common Ground Community Garden, Greenwood Lake
Sona Mason - September 2023
A timely topic for the month of September is the Great Spotted Lanternfly Stomp.
Stomp because the public is being urged to stomp, stamp and squash every lanternfly they come across before their numbers decimate our orchards and vineyards. Imagine no wine, beer or pie in the future!
The spotted lanternfly is an invasive Asian insect that was accidentally brought into Pennsylvania in 2014, and has been spreading across the mid-Atlantic, seeking out its preferred host tree Ailanthus altissima a.k.a. the Tree of Heaven or the "Tree that grows in Brooklyn", another invasive Asian species. This would be fine if the lanternfly stopped there, but its tastes are more cosmopolitan, and it has happily moved on to a wide range of other trees, vines and shrub species that impact our farms and forests. It is primarily a sucking insect, poking it's stylus into the plant's vein system just under the bark, officially called the cambium layer, and drinking plant sap and sugars. Since it doesn't possess a valve to moderate the flow of sap through its body, it acts as a hose, sap coming in one end and out the other end, to perpetually sprinkle down onto leaves, branches and the ground below, coating them with a sticky substance, which attracts a sooty mold. Since these insects tend to occur in groups, soon enough, entire parking lot edges and any unfortunate vehicles parked beneath are covered in black mold. But that's not the worst of it, since the insect drinks "fire-hose style" it drains the plant of its "blood", weakening and eventually killing it.
Lanternfly nymph
Lanternfly egg mass.
The insect multiplies prolifically. Right now, the adults are laying egg masses that look exactly like a smear of mud, and they're not fussy about where they lay them—tree bark or a vehicle wheel well will do just fine, making the eggs difficult to find and super easy to travel far. Hence the urgency to stomp it out.
And please cut down every Ailanthus tree you find—we don't need to give the spotted lanternfly an incentive to come visit. An unequivocal clue to determining whether a tree is an Ailanthus is to break off a twig and scratch & sniff: a powerful odor of peanut butter will present itself.
For pictures and more information on the spotted lanternfly, please follow these links:
https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2020/august/spotted-lanternfly-invasive-pest/