The polka-dotted hitchhikers likely arrived in town by rail. Kill them on sight, officials say.
Invasive spotted lanternflies have breached 麻花视频, as the insect鈥檚 yearslong advance south into Virginia continues. A few individual reports of spotted lanternflies first reached 麻花视频 in 2022, and photos of bug bunches have circulated on social media all summer.
A spotted lanternfly nymph is seen on a shed in 麻花视频 this summer. The Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources says invaders should be squashed on sight.
鈥淭he number one way that we鈥檒l see spotted lanternfly spreading is along the railroad,鈥 said Jules Amanita, spotted lanternfly field supervisor for the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
鈥淚t was a railyard where spotted lanternfly was originally found in 麻花视频 and Salem, next to the greenway,鈥 she said. They鈥檝e also been found all along the Interstate 81 corridor, including in Montgomery and Pulaski counties, and Radford.
People are also reading…
A spotted lanternfly nymph is seen on a shed in 麻花视频 this summer. The Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources warns the insect is an invasive pest that damages grapevines, fruit trees and maples, and should be squashed on sight.
Virginia is one of 19 states where the spotted lanternfly has spread, she said. That鈥檚 a fast rate for a bug to travel since about 2012, when it was mistakenly imported from southeast Asia to a port in Pennsylvania.
鈥淚t is the fastest-moving invasive insect in the United States currently, and quite probably ever,鈥 Amanita said. 鈥淚t will lay its egg masses on people鈥檚 cars, on trucks, on trains, on stuff that鈥檚 stored outside, as well as on plant material.鈥
The sap-sucking buggers cause crop damage, and produce a nasty byproduct for lawncare. Researchers at Virginia Tech used loyal dogs and soldierly ants to devise new methods of detecting the pestilent spotted lanternfly, and other invasive species like it.
Dogs can use their superior sense of smell to track wild game, drugs and people, but what about bug eggs? After 25 years as a search and rescue dog handler, these were the questions bothering Sally Dickinson.
Sally Dickinson and her detection dog, Flint, sniff for spotted lanternfly eggs at a vineyard at the Virginia Tech research and extension center in Winchester.
鈥淚 came up with a lot of questions that I wanted to answer,鈥 Dickinson said. 鈥淪o I decided to make the jump and go back to school.鈥
As a doctoral candidate in applied animal behavior and welfare at Virginia Tech, she took up a science project that built on research findings from Texas Tech.
鈥淲e already knew dogs could detect spotted lanternfly from a lab perspective,鈥 Dickinson said. 鈥淲e asked the question: can citizen scientists who have some experience doing scent work train their dogs on this new odor, and can they do it to a really high proficiency?鈥
Indeed, her team found that dogs are happy to seek out the smell of spotted lanternfly eggs. From there, it鈥檚 a lot easier to kill the unmoving egg masses before they鈥檝e entered the agile nymph and adult stages.
鈥淗umans are the biggest hurdle in this whole process. We鈥檙e so quick to blame our dog, like oh, Fido is just obstinate, or cantankerous, or whatever,鈥 Dickinson said. 鈥淏ut watching an awful lot of dogs work over the years, this study really cemented to me that dogs got it. We鈥檙e their biggest problem.鈥
In the case of the spotted lanternfly, doggy detection work could help save crops like grapes in Virginia vineyards. The lanternfly鈥檚 appetite for agricultural crops in Pennsylvania was estimated to cause at least $50 million of economic damage by 2020, with the number expected to climb, according to a Penn State study.
鈥淚f we give them some guiderails to operate, then they can certainly be an amazing force multiplier for local, grassroots conservation work,鈥 Dickinson said. 鈥淓specially in the face of an invasive species, when we鈥檙e looking at early detection and trying to eliminate that species.鈥
Ants never disappoint you, Scotty Yang said. An assistant professor at Virginia Tech, his team studies insect microbial interactions at the Yang Lab, specializing in ants.
Yang
鈥淎nts have all kinds of cool behavior,鈥 Yang said. 鈥淚 study behavior, I study ecology. I also study their genetics. It鈥檚 a little bit of everything.鈥
To detect spotted lanternfly populations before they鈥檝e reached a visible level, Yang鈥檚 team used ants as forensic investigators. The researchers merely relied on ants鈥 taste for sweets.
鈥淪potted lanternfly is a honeydew-producing insect. They feed on tree sap packed with carbohydrates, sugar, pretty much,鈥 Yang said. 鈥淲hen they excrete their waste, it contains a high level of sugar. Ants like sugar.鈥
Ants seek out and consume the sweet honeydew, storing it in their stomachs to share with the colony. The honeydew also contains easily detectable amounts of spotted lanternfly DNA, he said.
鈥淎ll we have to do is just go out there, collecting and processing ants for a signal of lanternfly DNA,鈥 Yang said. 鈥淲e will be able to know if spotted lanternflies are there or not.鈥
The test has implications for detecting invasive insect populations early, then implementing control strategies while the numbers are still manageable. It鈥檚 also faster to find ants than sending a team of workers to go look up trees for signs of lanternflies, he said.
鈥淔or us, our long-term goal is actually to use ants as an agricultural biosecurity tool,鈥 Yang said. 鈥淲e are likely to get a lot more honeydew-producing pests from overseas.鈥
Early detection is essential when it comes to curbing laternfly populations, said Amanita, the VDACS specialist. Invasive species are a problem that humans have dealt with since rats spread worldwide aided by sailing ships, she said.
鈥淚nvasive species tend to be the ones that really prefer our human-made environments,鈥 Amanita said. 鈥淲e are the ones who are responsible for preventing them, since we鈥檙e the ones who are causing their spread.鈥
Now that spotted lanternflies are here, they鈥檙e probably not going away, and they might even get worse for a little while, she said. Just like the brown marmorated stink bug, they鈥檙e called pests for a reason.
鈥淏y the time it reaches the level of population that it has in 麻花视频 now, we can control it, but eradication is way off the table,鈥 Amanita said. But, 鈥渨e may actually be able to stop it in the places where it hasn鈥檛 yet established.鈥
A map of Virginia shows areas where spotted lanternfly has been seen as of May 2025. The pest has spread quickly across the state.聽
When they made it to 麻花视频, the lanternflies found an abundance of their preferred host plant: tree of heaven, another invasive species. The tree is a common sight on roadsides, like Riverland Road Southeast, and in alleyways, introduced to North America centuries ago.
鈥淪potted lanternfly and tree of heaven co-evolved together in Asia, so they are quite heavily linked,鈥 Amanita said. 鈥淐hances are, spotted lanternfly would not do nearly so well in North America if it weren鈥檛 for the fact that tree of heaven is all over the place.鈥
Other localities might fare better, depending on how soon people detect the pest鈥檚 presence, and using methods like injecting pesticides directly into the tree of heaven鈥檚 sap.
鈥淲e鈥檒l see them start to lay eggs in September,鈥 Amanita said. 鈥淔inding and destroying egg masses can make a really big difference, because there鈥檚 30 to 50 eggs per egg mass. Even crushing just a few makes a significant impact in the population next year.鈥
Art depicts an adult spotted lanternfly. The invasive species is spreading across Virginia, and the eastern United States.
For people fighting the lanternfly in their backyards, there are organic, chemical, and manual control methods, but don鈥檛 use home remedies like soap or bleach outside, she said. When it comes to spotted lanternflies, everyone has a license to kill.
鈥淐rush them. Just crush individual insects. Go after them, kill them,鈥 Amanita said. 鈥淭ake out all of your frustrations about the world on these bugs.鈥
