Lanternflies are back in Lakewood, but it’s not something to be excited about.
As reported in past seasons, the invasive species native to China has been seen around New Jersey, and officials want you to kill them upon sight.
The lanternfly can actually look pretty, but the NJ Department of Agriculture says they pose a significant threat to crops and several types of trees.
Spotted lanternflies most commonly target fruit as their source of nourishment, but they eat so much of it that they end up actually killing the plant they are eating from by draining it of the resources it needs to survive the winter months.
The pests will also happily gobble up plants and trees on private properties (no, it doesn’t care about your rights as a property owner), possibly destroying them, though usually not fatally.
Not only can they kill certain plants and trees, they also secrete a sugary liquid that can quickly turn into a fungus outbreak, hurting the marketability of produce grown in New Jersey. Nobody likes moldy fruit.
But officials say there’s a pretty straightforward way of dealing with the pests: roll up your sleeves, don your meanest-looking outfit, and kill them.
Chayav Misa!!
Even if you don your meanest looking outfit, killing them is easier said than done. Although you seem to have a bigger chance of successfully crunching them if you try stepping on them head on, instead of the side or back
Spotted lanternflies most commonly target fruit as their source of nourishment, but they eat so much of it that they end up actually killing the plant they are eating from…
Echoing the calls of NJ State officials, the National Association of Fruit Flies released a statement on Monday warning New Jerseyans that the spotted lanternfly poses an existential threat to the fruit fly community.
“Lanternflies are hoarding the very food that WE, the fruit flies, need for our survival,” Buzzy Flywood, a prominent fruit fly, who currently serves as Executive Director of the National Association of Fruit Flies, said in the statement.
“Lanternflies don’t just EAT the fruit,” Flywood said, “they PIG OUT on it, and leave nothing left for us to eat!”
“And while I am acutely aware that many members of the human community abhor the fruit fly, and consider us to be pesky home invaders” Flywood said, “hence you would like nothing more than for us to become extinct. However, we’re not gonna just sit back and watch our fruit supply vanish before our very own eyes!”
“Hence, we are warning the New Jersey human community to destroy these evil lanternflies,” he said, “or else you will see an invasion of fruit flies in your homes like you’ve never seen before!”
“And when THAT happens,” the prominent fruit fly concluded, “don’t even bother calling insect control or the exterminators, because their most powerful pesticides and lethal insect sprays won’t stand a chance against us!”
Spraying a mix of 4 parts water and one part liquid soap from a spray bottle can kill them, and doesn’t harm trees.