Have you spotted the spotted lanternfly? Here’s the scoop on this invasive species

By Amelia Heymann

"If you see them, squash them."

That's the advice from the New York State Department of Agriculture, which recently spread the word about the spread of the spotted lanternfly, an invasive species whose wings are speckled with black dots. Their population has boomed in recent years - you may have noticed them littering the sidewalks this summer - but what makes this bug so bad for the native environment?

Derek M. Johnson, Ph.D., is a professor in Virginia Commonwealth University's School of Life Sciences and Sustainability within the College of Humanities and Sciences, and he directs the Derek Johnson Population Ecology Lab. VCU News caught up with him to talk about the impact of this red and black planthopper.

The spotted lanternfly isn't brand new to Virginia. Give us some background.

The spotted lanternfly is native to China and Vietnam, but it has proved to be an effective invader of other regions of the world, including Korea, Japan and Eastern Europe. The spotted lanternfly was first detected in North America in 2014 near Philadelphia, and the species has since been discovered as far north as Massachusetts, as far south as North Carolina and as far west as Illinois.

The spotted lanternfly was first detected in Northern Virginia in 2018 and has spread through most of Virginia's counties and cities, including the first report in Richmond in 2025.

Before we touch on the environmental and economic risk, what exactly makes a spotted lanternfly so menacing?

Spotted lanternflies feed by sucking phloem (plant tissue) from the branches and stems of host trees. Phloem is essential for nutrient transport throughout a plant. Phloem-feeders are common - they include the planthoppers, leafhoppers and aphids that we commonly find on our garden plants - and plants can typically tolerate moderate nutrient loss to phloem-feeders.

However, spotted lanternflies are large, and they lack natural enemies in North America. That means they can reach high densities that deplete nutrients at rates that weaken host plants - which can increase mortality risk both directly and indirectly in combination with contributing factors such as winter freezes.

The spotted lanternfly's primary host is the invasive tree called the tree-of-heaven, but it will feed on many native, agricultural and garden plants. Tree-of-heaven is a host in the native range of spotted lanternfly, so it has adapted the ability to co-exist with its natural enemy. But most plants in North America - native, ornamental and agricultural - do not share an evolutionary history with spotted lanternfly, so they are more likely to have decreased growth and greater mortality.

And what parts of the environment and economy are most threatened?

Spotted lanternfly is a particular threat to vineyards and fruit tree orchards, but it also threatens the timber industry, although to a lesser extent. The economic costs to agriculture, timber and ornamental industries include product loss, harvest loss and increased management costs.

The best estimates of economic cost come from Pennsylvania, where researchers estimated that the spotted lanternfly was already causing tens of millions of dollars in economic damage and hundreds of job losses by 2020 - with potential of these numbers increasing by an order of magnitude as the species spreads across the entire state.

What are lanternflies doing now in autumn, and what do they do in other seasons?

Spotted lanternflies have one generation per year. Eggs hatch in the spring, immatures grow through several stages in the summer, and then they grow into adults, mate and lay eggs in the autumn. At that point, the adults die and the population remains in the egg stage over the winter months before hatching in the following spring.

What should a person do if they see a lanternfly, or its eggs, or anything else related to the pest?

If you see spotted lanternflies - e.g., in your garden - you can kill them by squishing, or stomping them, to reduce their negative effects on your plants.

Could we ever eradicate the lanternfly from Virginia?

The short answer is: almost certainly no. We typically only have a chance to eradicate an invasive species when the population is highly localized. That could mean under 10 hectares for some species, maybe larger areas for other species.

When a species has spread over several states, as has the spotted lanternfly, the best we could do is to eradicate localized areas - only to see dispersal of the invasive species back into the area. It's essentially a game of invasive species whack-a-mole.

The best we can do in managing invasive species is using what we call an integrative management approach. It would involve a number of strategies, including management of the environment (such as tree-of-heaven removal programs), public awareness campaigns (for example, to prevent movement of infested plants) and targeted pesticide applications (such as in vineyards and fruit tree orchards).