Trees are all Turning Black from the Lantern Flys , like a Horror Movie

the black is from mold that develops from the sap they suck out of the trees.

It really seems like we shouldn't allow anything from Asia, specifically China, in the US. Pests from Asia have cost us the equivalent of trillions of dollars in today's money and have devastated our ecosystems.

Keith

Your absolutely right Keith

Not sure if we have those bugs here but I did notice some trees last winter looked black and dead then late spring they leaved out and look fine now, they didn't even lose a branch.

I see them here and there in the suburbs but the last time we took a quad ride to check the trail cams nearby, a big flock of them flew into us. Hundreds. They’re here. Not sure what we can do to stop them now.

There's some anecdotal evidence that milkweed kills the the first 4 stages of nymphs of spotted lantern flies. Several universities are doing studies on it right now. The thought is that they eat milkweed if it's present and then die because it's toxic. I encouraged my friend and nursery business partner to see if her students could get some grants to study it too.

Keith

When my wife dragged me to NYC a few years ago, Times Square was full of them. As was Unionville NJ, Allentown PA and Hamburg PA.
Had a co-worker from Ann Arbor MI tell me they saw some there last summer.

Interesting thank you!

Very interesting , Thank you

You're both welcome.

Keith

Honeybees have figured out a way to utilize lanterflies. Lanterflies suck sap from plants, particularly tree of heaven. They then secrete a liquid, honeydew , that bees gather and convert to honey.

I noticed several of these at the NTA meet.

All interesting.
Here I seen 5.
Twenty miles NW I seen 500.

We're losing ash trees, now honey locusts are starting to die off.

We got lucky here in my county in Southeast Pennsylvania, which was actually the epicenter for the spotted lantern fly invasion. The naturally occurring fungus Beauveria bassiana caused a spotted lantern fly population crash back in 2018 and I just saw my first one the other day since that event.

Prior to that we were loaded with them.

latest and greatest here are spruce budworm interestingly the large mature spruce get hit hardest they are red spruce now Balsam and smaller spruce just have the new growth ate off

I'll see your lantern flies and raise you box elder bugs...


Currently on the Manitoba maple in my front yard

That’s Horrible

Hopefully