First it was the emerald ash borer. In my town, it decimated some areas where all the parkway trees were ashes.
Now it's the spotted lanternfly. It eats lots of stuff and it really loves grapes.
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In Amityville, Pennsylvania, 10 acres of grapevines sprawl across the family-owned Manatawny Creek Winery. Owner Darvin Levengood is no stranger to vineyard pests. But he was met with calamity in the fall of 2017 when grape pickers were bombarded by swarms of a new invasive insect, the spotted lanternfly. Winery guests couldn’t drink on the open porch without finding the bug, and its “honeydew,” in their glass.
“It’s a misnomer,” Levengood says of the sweet-sounding residue. “Honeydew is a perfectly good fruit. This is nothing more than poop.”
Since the bug was first identified in 2014, it has been devastating vineyards and orchards in the Northeast. Lycorma delicatula, named for the lantern-shaped body of the adult that appears to glow under its dull wings, is used in traditional medicine in China, its native land. In the US, it has quickly become one of the most destructive invasive species in 150 years.
The spotted lanternfly is unlike other invasive species in its voraciousness and indiscriminate palate, with a diet that includes at least 70 plants, says Heather Leach, an entomologist at Pennsylvania State University—the mothership of lanternfly research.
Apple, nectarine, almond, and cherry trees are among its choice snacks, along with other fruit-bearers like plum and apricot. Other woody favorites include pine, oak, walnut, and poplar trees. But the lanternfly is a vinophile and prefers grapes above all else. The effects have been devastating for the Pennsylvania wine industry, where some growers have reported a 90 percent grape loss due to lanternfly damage.
