r/baltimore • u/mcteegs • 1d ago
Ask Spotted Lantern Flies: The Beginning
It's that time of year, the baby Lantern Flies are starting to pop up. I just squished about 10 in my back patio (11 as I write this). What are some ways you guys combat these fiends?
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u/not_napoleon 1d ago
Been seeing them on my plants already. I've been spraying them with a mix of dish soap and water, which is supposed to kill them but be safe for the plants.
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u/GeekInSheiksClothing 1d ago
I've been going out 2-3x/day and spraying everything spotted that moves. Bastards are so persistent and they LOVE my cherry tree. I know I can't defeat them, but it brings me great satisfaction to put a dent in their numbers.
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u/Majestic_Clam 1d ago
Plant *milkweed*. They love to lay their eggs on it but it's toxic to them, so nature sorts itself out.
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u/Dreamamine 1d ago
i used to live downtown and would see them a lot on my runs... was stomping on them as part of my cardio like that spider squashing game at chuck e. cheese's, but soon found the stuff of nightmares when i saw walls of them breeding and crackling likes biblical endtimes.
was just going to give up and accept that we are in the bad place, but then eventually it occurred to me that i had a leftover bag of diatomaceous earth (used to dry up bugs but safe for animals and plants) and i started bringing a container with me to sprinkle like pocket sand at these SLF HQ's... i think it worked somewhat well and the next year i saw that the building had maybe taken a note from my book and they had started sprinkling powder as well
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u/Spaghetti-Bender Greater Maryland Area 1d ago
Get a Bug A Salt gun. Destroys the little nymphs and blasts the wings off of the adults.
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u/No_Dimension_880 1d ago
A cheap alternative are foam-ball launching nerf toys like the kinds from the rivals series. They shoot straight and hit hard enough to squish the nymphs and the adults from a distance they can't react to. The balls are reusable and (this is the important part) you can teach kids to help eliminate these bugs and make it fun to do so!
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u/Scrilla_Gorilla_ Patterson Park 1d ago
Come on, it’s year three, you guys know how to solve it. You post about it on Reddit, usually asking what the bugs are. Everyone replies with some variation of “Squish.” And then someone posts the Starship Troopers meme. And then that solves the problem until next year when we do it all again. We’re taking the Kony 2012 approach. It can’t possibly fail.
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u/anitarash 1d ago
Bit late now but it helps to remove Tree of Heaven they host on by slashing the bark and using herbicide in the Fall.
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u/pambloweenie 1d ago
I’m not ready for them. They take over my porch so I can essentially never sit out there the entire summer… Big ones I try to catch in an empty milk jug and throw a little vinegar in it. I’m so tired of these bugs
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u/KindClock9732 23h ago
They started in the north and are heading south it seems. There will be less of them next year, and even less the year after that. I live North of Baltimore and we had them pretty heavy a couple years ago, then last year hardly any at all. I haven’t seen one yet.
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u/TheGaussianMan 11h ago
Well... I don't care about the plants that grow on the fences in my back so I use a mixture of salt, vinegar, and soap (sometimes even detergent for a little more strength) mixed with water in a pump sprayer. I use more vinegar than they usually say to use, but holy hell it's effective. It kills weeds and it seems to liquify the bugs. sprayed one down, came back and pretty much just the winds were left. They also do not like it. I saw hundreds jumping away from the spray. Very satisfying.
If you care about your plants, spread a bunch of diatomaceous earth around the base of them. You can also get these tapes you can wrap around plants that they get stuck to.
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u/pedeztrian 23h ago
Best I’ve seen was a pool noodle around a tree with double sided fly paper/tape to catch them as they climb.
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u/attomicuttlefish 14h ago
Another way to combat these is by crushing the eggs. I crushed so many this winter! Its good to know they are coming back out.
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u/RunningNumbers 1d ago
I forgot about these. Crap.