If you’re not keeping an eye on smears of dried mud on your car, forest pest educators like Ginger Nickerson say now’s a good time to pick up the habit. Nickerson and other experts warn that spotted lanternflies could be hitching a ride into Vermont, where they pose a threat to trees and other plants.
“They could lay their eggs on anything that you have outdoors, like your car, or if you’ve got bikes on the back of your car,” she said. “And then, when you come back to Vermont — or if you’re moving your child to Vermont to go to college — and you park your vehicle here, then (they) could hatch in the springtime.”
What might look like a patch of dry mud could actually be the egg mass of a spotted lanternfly, she warned.
Experts say species like spotted lanternfly and others can disrupt local ecosystems. And, spotted lanternflies are laying eggs around this time, leading up to hard frosts.
When the insect feeds on a plant or tree, they excrete a sticky substance called honeydew. It can disrupt photosynthesis when it falls on leaves, and the insects can impact yields of grapevines, berries and roses. It might not kill most plants, but it is most likely to kill grapevines and black walnut trees.
They’re most likely spread through human means: they can hitch a ride on out-of-state campfire wood or on cars. Spotted lanternflies were first spotted in Pennsylvania in 2014, and they’ve spread along the East Coast and into some parts of the Midwest, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Nickerson said people can manage the spread and help prevent avoidable damage. She said the state is relying on people reporting sightings of the insect at any life stage to monitor the potential spread.
Some of the best ways to stop spotted lanternflies from establishing a local community is to carefully inspect any vehicles that are traveling from a spotted lanternfly state to Vermont for the insects at any life stage, she said, and to avoid bringing firewood from a different state.
She also said any sightings should be reported to VTInvasives.org, along with squishing the sighted bug or scraping off an egg mass.
“I don’t think that it’s something that people should be afraid of or overly worried about, but we would really appreciate people being thoughtful when they travel to places where there are infestations, so that they’re making an effort to not bring it home,” Nickerson said.
Spotted lanternflies aren’t the only pest to watch out for, just the latest.
USDA research shows that in the last decade, the leading cause of tree death in the northeastern U.S. has shifted from harvesting, like logging, to natural causes, including damage from insects. Lead author and University of Vermont researcher Lucas Harris said there’s been a fivefold increase in tree mortality by insects over a 15-year period, and insect outbreaks increased by 13 times over 15 years. He said, in a lot of ways, there isn’t really an analog to this increase.
“We know that tree mortality is not typically caused by just one thing; it’s the interaction of multiple factors,” he said. “Maybe a tree experienced a drought a few years back, and it’s experiencing intense competition based on neighboring trees, and then there’s an insect outbreak, and that’s what finally kills the tree.”
He said it reflects what experts are seeing with the spread of insects like the emerald ash borer and hemlock woolly adelgid, which have established populations in Vermont.
“There are a lot of individual insects capable of causing tree death, but I think the surprise is how much it adds up,” he said.
He also said what happens in the future can be hard to predict. And attributing tree death is a tricky practice. In northern New England, he said, we’re pretty lucky in that mortality hasn’t ramped up at quite the same rate as our southern New England neighbors.
“We’re at this time in northern New England where there might be a window of opportunity to think critically,” he said. “We haven’t experienced a lot of tree death yet. There might be opportunities to make our forests more resilient or perhaps stop the spread of particular insects into particular areas.”
While sightings of spotted lanternflies have occurred in the state, officials say they haven’t found an established community. There are three non-native insects that already have a presence in Vermont, and they threaten the health of 14 species of trees.
Emerald ash borers are causing widespread death of ash trees, particularly the culturally significant black ash, and experts say it’s likely almost all black ash trees will succumb to the insect. They were introduced to Vermont in 2018, and were just found in Essex County, the last ‘holdout’ area, this fall, according to Joanne Garton, community forester with Vermont Forests, Parks and Recreation.
And hemlock woolly adelgids, which look like tiny cotton balls on hemlock needles, have been in Vermont since 2007, and have established communities in the southern part of the state, according to Vermont Parks and Rec. They feed on hemlock species throughout North America. They’re most likely to spread from April through August, and officials are unclear as to exactly how much damage they’ll do in the state, particularly farther north.
Garton said it’s important to understand that humans introduced these pests, and our role in the resulting threat to local ecosystems.
“Really taking ownership of our role as humans in moving these pests around is something that, I think, is hard to stomach,” she said. “None of us want to be that person that was responsible, but collectively, we are the people that are responsible for moving insects and diseases and pests way faster than nature can keep up with.”
There are multiple efforts underway in the state and in the Northeast to address pests. Community forester Garton and her team are trained to apply an insecticide to the base of ash trees, and she said a group in Hardwick collects ash seeds to preserve the species into the future. Plus, experts say ordinary people in the community reporting sightings of any introduced pest is one of the best ways to monitor the potential spread.
Garton said there’s a silver lining to protecting the forest from further damage from introduced pests: she’s connected with many people who care deeply about stewarding our shared landscape.
She encouraged people to go outside, look carefully and notice things around them. She said it’s a big step towards more positive change.
“What’s here? What didn’t used to be here, what could I protect that’s here, and how might I do that? It’s a lot, and there’s a lot of places to go look,” Garton said. “But I think together, we can do it. We can keep working on it.”