In surrounding agricultural areas, farmers on the precipice of the pest’s expanding range wait to see how this new phloem-feeding insect will affect their crops.
#SPOTTED LANTERN FLY FREE#
Businesses in the mandatory quarantine areas of Winchester and Frederick must inspect vehicles and materials being shipped elsewhere to ensure they are free of hitchhiking spotted lanternflies. Residents in Winchester and Frederick County now report large numbers of spotted lanternflies grouped on trees, buildings, and outdoor infrastructure.
However, much of Virginia could eventually face similar infestations. The pest, which poses a serious threat to Virginia farmers and can be an extreme nuisance for citizens, has expanded its range within the City of Winchester and Frederick County and to neighboring Clarke County. The spotted lanternfly has spread quickly in the two-and-a-half years since its detection. “I had not seen them in downtown Winchester before this year," said Reed, a Virginia Cooperative Extension Master Gardener. This year, the spotted lanternfly so heavily populated her community that neighbors complain of insects scaling buildings up to fifth-floor balconies and thick swarms of large adult lanternflies can be seen congregating on newly cut tree stumps of its preferred host species, tree of heaven. When the highly invasive spotted lanternfly was first discovered in the woods surrounding Kate Reed’s Winchester, Virginia, home, it occurred in such small numbers that finding it required a short trip and careful observation in a small area of trees.
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