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Will White here with Nexus Pest Solutions, bringing you another edition of questions were asked when we’re out in the field.
And today’s question is going to be different.
It’s not exactly a question, what I’m putting out is a spotted lantern fly alert, be on the lookout, where they call a BOLO.
Be on the lookout for the spotted lantern fly.
Now, everything I’m sharing with you today, or at least a majority of what I’m sharing with you today comes from the the unit, the Agriculture Department out of Pennsylvania, because Pennsylvania, is where the spotted lantern fly has taken a pretty good foothold.
And it’s really just a matter of time before they show up here in Wisconsin. And I’m saying that because I did here a couple of weeks ago, they found a spotted lantern fly or a few in Iowa. And I’m thinking, wow, how did he get to Iowa? And not here? So there’s a possibility that this spotted lantern fly is already in Wisconsin, and people don’t know what they’re looking at.
They probably think Oh, that’s really cool. That’s a beautiful moth. And it looks more like a moth than a fly. And it is it is beautiful.
And I was having some problem uploading a picture, you know, to this podcast. Hopefully it’s up there. But if not, Google Images of the spotted lantern fly to get a picture because it’s you if you saw it again, you will know. And it’s a very, very invasive pest.
The Agriculture Department in Pennsylvania was calling it a bad bug.
And I’m gonna tell you something. I’ve been in this industry for a while. And I’ve never seen a message that said something like this.
Kill it, squash it, smash it, just get rid of it. So that gives you an idea how serious it is if this pest shows up.
So what is the spotted lantern fly?
This is something from Asia is started showing up in Pennsylvania in 2014. And what did they do? It’s an invasive pest.
So it attacks grapes, apples hops, for beer lovers, and the hardwood industry. And this thing, you know, when they show up, and they get a foot hole, you know, you can have hundreds of these things flying around.
And what they do is I guess they they excrete some type of sugary substance called Honey Do they say that encourages the growth of a black city mole. Now this mold is not harmful to people. But it causes damages, it causes damages to, you know, like these plants, these vines and things of that nature.
And then when you have a lot of them, they can leave that honey do on it can coat decks, and children’s, you know, like plague women like swings and things of that nature. Now to people in Pennsylvania, according to the Department of Agriculture, is saying that it really really during the summertime, it really really affects their quality of life.
This, despite Atlanta fly back guests because of these secretions that they’re they’re leaving about now in the fall is when they laid her eggs. And then those eggs hatch. And in the spring and the summer is when we have all of those problems.
Now, if you think that you have, I want to say spotted a spotted lantern fly, you know, you hear what they’re saying kill it, you know, take a picture of it, you know, you can always send it to our pest hotline, pest text line at 262-501-8030 number.
And I will ensure that it gets to the right people because they’re going to want to talk to you, I can tell you right now, they are definitely going to want to talk to you because I don’t think we’re going to avoid having these things.
These spot Atlanta flies in Wisconsin, it’s just a matter of time before we get there. But what we what they need, what they’re going to try to do is limit the damage that these things are going to do once they get get here.
So it’s very serious, folks. So I’m asking you for your help now. Can you if you spot one, A, get that information to as fast you know if you know some folks, I spend a lot of time outdoors, you know, they see this thing is really it’s a beautiful fly, I have to say I think it’s pretty colorful, it’s really unique looking.
They have to report that because it’s not. It looks more like if I didn’t say it before, it looks more like a moth than a fly. But if they see it, they have to, they have to report that right away because there’s folks that want to try to like say limit the damage to what they can do.
You know until then, folks, you know, this was an alert on the spotted lantern fly. But until next time on questions we’re asking we’re out in the field. I hope you have a pest free day. And I want to thank you for listening to this podcast.
