[MAIPC] Spotted Lanternfly thoughts

[Richard Gardner]

Thoughts on the Spotted Lanternfly in Berks County, PA

Richard Gardner

Sept. 10, 2018

 

  From the beginningof this summer to the present I have been looking for the Spotted Lanternfly innorthwestern Berks County, PA while doing other research.  My wife and I over the summer have seen nymphsat three places: the start of the Fox Trot trail in Blue Marsh, Bernville Sewerplant and the old elementary school in Shartlesville. The latter having atleast a dozen nymphs. I also saw an adult in August at the Wyomissing FamilyRestaurant after having lunch with a friend.

  I walked with thespecific purpose of looking for the SLF on September 4 and 5 in SGL110 nearShartlesville with negative results, on September 6, along a 1.5 mile stretchof the loop trail in Blue Marsh on either side of mile 19 with negative resultsand on September 8, Blue Marsh at mile 1, (“dog beach”/emergency flood overflowarea), finding an infestation. All these locations are within a few miles of myhome and contain ample Ailanthustrees.

  What I have learned bydirect observation and from talking with other people is that the SLF isspreading mostly in suburban and urban areas. This is due to severalconditions;

1.     Vehicles to transport the SLF over the landscape

2.     Places people congregate for at least an hour ata time

3.     Ailanthus trees

  Since the SLF is ahopper, to travel across the landscape the way it is requires vehicles tohitchhike on. Apparently, it uses flat smooth surfaces such as cars, trucks,boats and boat trailers. I first saw the SLF at First Energy Stadium in Readinglast fall. People from all over the county, including Boyertown/Oley – the areaof introduction, and surrounding areas congregate here for baseball games andother events. This brought the SLF from infested areas to a common meetingplace from which it can change vehicles to travel to other areas. From what Iheard it is in similar urban and suburban places that people congregate fromacross the county such as restaurants, a campground near Shartlesville and theold elementary school in Shartlesville (which is now a conservative Anabaptist church). Additionally,I heard that at the stilling basin in Blue Marsh the Ailanthus trees had SLF egg masses last fall, which is the reasonwe walked from there on September 8. This last mentioned location is a placepeople congregate from across the county to fish as it is one of the few countylakes with public access.

  Ailanthus trees are ubiquitous in Berks County. So, there is alwaysan available food supply. The two contiguous parts of SGL110 which I walked forseveral miles are remote dirt roads which are open only during hunting seasonstarting in mid-September. No SLF was found there. The 1-1/2 miles of BlueMarsh I walked was parallel to a major artery, Rt. 183. Even though it is amajor road, few people stop along it, including in the minor towns, because itis mostly a commuter route from Schuylkill County to Reading in Berks County andbetween Rt. 222 and I-78.

  Contrasting the SLFwith the Brown Marmorated Stinkbug is the difference between a flyer whichoccasionally hitchhikes and a hopper which must hitchhike to spread. Both werefirst found within 30 miles of my home. Where I live we have had hundreds, ifnot thousands of BMSB. (They have forced me to rethink how I garden and whatvegetables to grow. This means that there will be early producing beans such asbush varieties instead of later pole varieties and non-red cherry tomatoes as redcherry tomatoes appear to be a preferred food more than other tomato types.) Anotherdifference between the two insects is that the BMSB is supposed to have 2 or 3generations per year as opposed to just one generation per year for the SLF.

BMSB easily spreads across the landscape on its own. SLFdoes not. A further note is that in our vegetable garden we are seeing muchsmaller stages of the BMSB predominating at the present than in past years.This may be possibly due to the amount of rain and overcast days we have hadthis summer.

  Japanese stilt grassand mile-a-minute are plant contrasts similar to the SLF and BMSB. To spreadacross the landscape under normal conditions Japanese stilt grass moves oneither shoes or occasionally vehicles and down vernal waterflows. I see it alongthe trails and dirt roads in SGL110. Most of these distances are relativelyshort. In contrast as is evident in SGL110 in Tilden Township, mile-a-minute isspread by birds along the ridge and a dirt road near the top of the ridge. Theberries are consumed by birds and obviously left behind at roosts when thebirds take flight. The fall migration route along the ridge and roosts thebirds use are obvious by the density of mile-a-minute.

  The “quarantine” ofthe SLF was nothing but a pathetic Trump-like joke. Like the wavy leaf basketgrass, once the SLF was established there was nothing which could be done aboutit. Convincing people that they could make a difference with NRA-like fearpropaganda erodes our position as scientists in our society and increases thedistrust scientists like me have of our scientific and political leadership.The only people who will benefit are investors in pesticide companies likeMonsanto. Right now, the only reasonable course of action besides intelligentlyeducating people about this issue is to take the time to do science; patientlystudy the SLF over at least several years with the forlorn hope of preventingsimilar issues in the future.
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