Video: Brown biologist Tyler Kartzinel on how to fight the spotted lanternfly invasion

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] - They're baaack! Spotted lanternflies have been detected in New England once again.

In a brief video interview, Brown University biologist Tyler Kartzinel explains why these bugs are bad news for plants and trees and why eliminating one may not be enough.

The spotted lanternfly, which is native to parts of Asia and India, has been in the United States for over a decade, Kartzinel said. In that time, they have rapidly spread across the country, damaging a wide variety of trees and plants as they go.

"They make their living by sucking sap out of trees," Kartzinel said. "And that takes the resources that the trees need to grow and be strong and survive."

While Kartzinel encourages stepping on lanternflies, he said that a better way to fight back against the invasion is to learn to recognize and destroy the eggs before they have a chance to reach adulthood.

He advises looking for grayish brown substances on tree bark that cover masses of spotted lanternfly eggs and scraping them off.

"You can try to scrape them off just with some keys or a credit card," said Kartzinel, an associate professor in the department of ecology, evolution and organismal biology and a fellow of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society. "Let them fall to the ground, smush them a little bit. And that's the most effective way that we have right now to really locally intervene."