VA Pest May Hatch Eggs In Christmas Trees

VIRGINIA — A bug that has already made its way into Virginia has spread to another state, and experts warn the pest could do some unpleasant things in your house, including infesting your Christmas tree. The spotted lanternfly was first detected in Virginia in January 2018. Virginia Cooperative Extension calls it an invasive planthopper that has the potential to be a serious pest of agriculture and home gardens across the Commonwealth.

State inspectors discovered the spotted lanternfly at a stone yard in Frederick County near Winchester. The insect is native to China, India and Vietnam, and feeds on more grapes, stone fruits, hops and Ailanthus (Tree of Heaven), among other plants. The insect causes damage to plants because of its method of feeding, the rapid buildup of large populations and the production of a fluid with a fermented odor that's a by-product of its feeding, which promotes mold growth and draws even more insects, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The spotted lanternfly is currently in its nymph stage and is likely to be either black or red with white spots, according to agriculture officials. Nymph and adult spotted lanternflies cause extensive damage when they feed, sucking sap from stems and leaves and causing the plant to ooze and weep.

Anyone planning to buy a pre-cut Christmas tree this year should carefully check the tree before driving it home and make sure no eggs or live insects are clinging to the trunk or any branches.

Virginia grape growers say their yields have decreased from 4.5 tons per acre to about a half ton per acre after the lanternfly attacked the plants, the Virginia Tech newspaper reported in June.

In June 2018, state experts put out a call for residents to notify them if they spot the spotted lanternfly, which creates a black sticky mess on homeowners’ trees that stinks of sour vinegar has been found in Virginia.

“We think we could see them covering homeowners’ trees in numbers that could even be worse than the 17-year cicadas,” said Eric Day, manager of the Virginia Tech Insect Identification Lab, which is helping monitor the insect's spread in the state. “We are still determining how bad this impact is going to be on both agricultural producers and homeowners.”

(For more news like this, find your local Patch here. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app; download the free Patch Android app here. And like Patch on Facebook!)

The dangerously invasive insect was recently spotted in three New Jersey counties for the first time, Secretary of Agriculture Douglas H. Fisher says. The specific areas where the spotted lanternfly have been identified have been treated, but they still could easily re-emerge and could appear in other New Jersey counties.

One of the potentially damaging things this bug can do is prey on dozens of types of crops and trees, and they could easily attach themselves to the bark of Christmas trees to lay their eggs and multiply, Joseph Zoltowski, director of the New Jersey Department of Agriculture's Division of Plant Industry, told Patch.

A Warren County, New Jersey, woman had two clusters of spotted lanternfly eggs attached to her pre-cut Christmas tree last season, but she didn't notice them until she saw a few strange-looking insects inside her home in early January, when the tree was still up, Zoltowski said.

The pest was first spotted in Pennsylvania in 2014 and has spread to 13 counties there, where the insect prefers Tree of Heaven as its host.

"The Spotted Lanternfly is an excellent hitchhiker, with the ability travel on all types of vehicles as well as various landscaping, wood-based materials and agricultural produce," Fisher said.

For more information about this insect click here.

Virginians who see the bug are asked to report it via this form to Virginia Cooperative Extension.

Patch Editor Tom Davis contributed reporting to this story.

NJ Dept. of Agriculture photo