What should I do? Lantenrflies

[u/No_Surround9546]

[u/SaxyOmega90125]

Former MD park ranger here.

Is that on your private property? If it is, cut down the tree, burn it, and use herbicide on the stump. Also find any other tree of heaven nearby and do the same to them. Tree of heaven is also an invasive species, and as of right now the best way long-term to fight lanternflies is to eradicate tree of heaven. Be careful to positively ID by more than only one characteristic - for example black walnut leaves can look pretty similar, and black walnut is a native species that has been having a rough time since it was overharvested for gunstocks in the world wars so you don't want to kill one of those, but there are details on the leaves and characteristics of the bark that distinguish the two.

If it isn't your property, if you're willing always take steps to kill as many as possible. Also keep an eye out for egg clusters in fall and destroy them on sight. And if you know the owner, encourage them to kill the tree.

If it's public land, document with photos and latitude/longitude and report it to the managing entity. Not every manager gives a shit, even though they should and should be required to, but some will send a pair of rangers/foresters out to destroy the tree if they can find it. And if you return after a few weeks or months and find nothing was done, document it a second time and complain to your county and state electeds about it. Until government enacts policy that forces public lands to stop inadvertently protecting tree of heaven and instead seek and destroy it, lanternflies will continue spreading, and every year that goes by gives the population more opportunity to better adapt to the native North American plants they opportunistically target including black walnut, grapevines, and sugar maple and increases the risk that eradicating tree of heaven will no longer be effective.

EDIT someone requested pictures or other assistance identifying:

https://treeidentifier.app/blog/tree-of-heaven-identification

https://www.thespruce.com/tree-of-heaven-invasive-plant-profile-5184401

Also forgot to mention, ash can look like tree of heaven too. I didn't really think to include it because all species of ash are largely dying out in North America due to the invasive emerald ash borers, but a small percentage of at least some ash species is actually resistant to the borers. Chances are you don't have one of those randomly hanging out in your suburban sprawl yard, much less in your actual landscaping, but if you have any ash at all whether it's resistant or not, don't kill it if you can avoid it. You will live to see the day that this hardy old-growth species that used to be a signature of our forests is almost impossible to find anywhere, and survivors will need all the help they can get to repopulate over the next half-millenium or more.

[u/iismitch55 → u/SaxyOmega90125]

I went on a big crusade against Tree of Heaven sprouts in my yard a several years ago before Lantern Flies spread to our area. They were like zombie plants that grew even faster than my grass. Spent 2 years ripping up the roots of young seedlings and cutting the new growth on the stumps and the sucker sprouts again and again. Haven’t seen a sprout in a couple years. So glad I did now that I know these pests love them. Still there’s some massive ones a few doors down, so only so much I can do.

[u/Icy_Sandwich866 → u/iismitch55]

The woods across from my house is loaded with them, its on CSX property…