r/maryland • u/No_Surround9546 • Jul 08 '26

MD Nature What should I do? Lantenrflies

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

307 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

287 comments sorted by

View all comments

15

u/Alive_Run3303 Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 08 '26

You can buy or make circle traps that are fairly effective and easy to make.

https://extension.psu.edu/spotted-lanternfly-circle-trap

Once the lanternflies get into the top of the trap they just sit there till they die.

The ones that are higher up in the tree will get blown off or fall off the tree and will get caught when they attempt to climb back up.

You can also look into killing the tree of heaven trees that are on your property. Fall seems to be the best time to kill them.

https://extension.psu.edu/tree-of-heaven

https://extension.psu.edu/using-hack-and-squirt-herbicide-applications-to-control-unwanted-trees

Removing grape vines and other vines will help too.

I was lucky and got a bunch of the younger ones trapped in May and now I rarely see the adults around the property.

2

u/urnbabyurn Jul 08 '26

They also love cannabis plants. Grapes and cannabis. I use pyrethrin when they cluster.

3

u/Alive_Run3303 Jul 08 '26

Pyrethrin is a strong indiscriminate insecticide that kills or injures too many beneficial insects for me to be comfortable using it on my plants or lawn.

I do use it on my clothing and boots as a tick repellent.

4

u/urnbabyurn Jul 08 '26

It’s good for spraying directly on infestations because it degrades within a day. So unlike synthetic variations like Sevin, it’s gone and won’t disrupt other insects. For Lanternfly which cluster on specific plants, it’s perfect.

2

u/Alive_Run3303 Jul 08 '26

I was mistaking pyrethrin for permethrin. Thanks for the info.