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Have you heard about the spotted lanternfly and wondered where it is in Illinois? Check out this week’s Good Growing Podcast as we talk with Kelly Estes, State Agricultural Pest Survey Coordinator, about the arrival of this invasive insect. Learn about how spotted lanternfly got here and where it’s been found, what it looks like, where to look for it, how to report it, and more!
Watch us on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Q9YSSOuSkfY
Skip to what you want to know:
01:35 - Welcome, Kelly Estes! What is your role with University of Illinois?
05:06 - What is spotted lanternfly? Why should we be concerned?
06:18 - How did spotted lanternfly get here?
07:17 - Is spotted lanternfly present in Illinois?
08:39 - Is there any type of quarantine set up for spotted lanternfly?
10:03 - The spread of spotted lanternfly.
11:46 - If we live somewhere with spotted lanternfly, what should we expect?
13:39 - Spotted lanternfly life cycle and identification.
19:20 - If we don't live in an area with spotted lanternfly, where should we be looking for them?
20:28 - Should we kill tree of heaven or leave some to scout for spotted lanternfly?
22:37 - If I see a spotted lanternfly, what should I do?
28:11 - Squashing spotted lanternfly, sticky traps, and spotted lanternfly awareness.
32:20 – Raining honeydew and other nuisance problems
37:31- Wrap-up, thank yous, what’s up next week, and goodbye!
37:31- Wrap-up, thank yous, what’s up next week, and goodbye!
Read more about it:
Report sightings of spotted lanternfly in Illinois to lanternfly@illinois.edu
Contact us!
Chris Enroth: cenroth@illinois.edu
Ken Johnson: kjohnso@illinois.edu
Check out the Good Growing Blog: https://go.illinois.edu/goodgrowing
Subscribe to the weekly Good Growing email: https://go.illinois.edu/goodgrowingsubscribe
Any products or companies mentioned during the podcast are in no way a promotion or endorsement of these products or companies.
Barnyard Bash: freesfx.co.uk
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Creators and Guests
Host
Host
KE
Guest
Kelly Estes
State Agricultural Pest Survey Coordinator, University of Illinois
What is Good Growing?
Talking all things horticulture, ecology, and design.
Welcome to the Good Growing podcast. I am Chris Enroth, horticulture educator with University of Illinois Extension coming at you from Macomb, Illinois, and we have got a great show for you today, the spotted lanternfly. Oh, I've heard about it out east, but is it here in Illinois? Well, we are going to learn more about that when we talk with our special guest, Kelly Estes, today. But you know I'm not doing this by myself.
Chris Enroth:I'm joined, as always, every single week by horticulture educator Ken Johnson in Jacksonville. Hey, Ken.
Ken Johnson:Hello, Chris. It's gonna be another excellent episode talking about insects.
Chris Enroth:I you were looking forward to this one. I know you were. It's an insect one. Yes. So, everyone, Ken is doing his best to contain himself, with this conversation we're gonna have today.
Chris Enroth:So it's like a nice little treat at the September.
Ken Johnson:Yes. It's the reward for making it through September.
Chris Enroth:That's right. You made it through September. Congratulations. Fall's about to start. Your your your favorite time of year when it starts getting cold, and we're gonna get to talk about insects.
Ken Johnson:Well, I'm not sure it's getting cold anytime soon, unless I check the the weather. I
Chris Enroth:hey, I'm I am I got the flannels out. I'm ready to watch Charlie Brown's The Big Pumpkin Hunt. You know, we're we're we're getting into fall. I don't care what the weather's like. Oh, well, Ken, I I think you're with as your excitement is boiling over here, we we should probably get started with our topic today.
Chris Enroth:So introducing our special guest. We're happy to have, Kelly Estes. So Kelly is the state ag pest survey coordinator, located on campus and in Champaign Urbana. Kelly, welcome to the show.
Kelly Estes:Thanks for having me. Happy to be here. And as a fellow bug nerd, this excites me as well.
Chris Enroth:I I am surrounded by bug people. That's just the way it goes, I think. Well, we are happy to have you. Before we dive into our questions today, could you just tell us a bit about what you do, over on campus?
Kelly Estes:Yeah. So like you mentioned, I am on campus at the University of Illinois in Champaign. I am housed at the Illinois Natural History Survey, and my title is state ag pest survey coordinator. And I work with the Illinois Department of Agriculture as well as USDA APHIS PPQ. And my primary role is to coordinate invasive species surveys around the state.
Kelly Estes:And so get to look for all kinds of new insects. Yes. Yes. Insects. But we also, keep an eye on things like, plant pathogens.
Kelly Estes:Sometimes we get to to look at, invasive plants. We talk mollusks sometimes, but, a very exciting and interesting job all the time because they're you know, in this world that we live in, there's always something new right around the corner. And so our job is to keep track of what's going on around the world, what's going around The US, and look at things that might be introduced to the state of Illinois, and that can be things that affect crops, whether that be corn, soybeans, specialty crops, plants in your garden, as well as things that affect, our natural resources, state parks, trees, all sorts of stuff. So lots of variety in my job.
Chris Enroth:That is a big old plate that you have there. My goodness. And you're looking for new stuff. I don't know if if you're necessarily wanting to find the new stuff, but yeah.
Kelly Estes:No. We don't necessarily wanna find it, but, and it's always interesting because we do different surveys every year. And, the idea is to find it early if it's here to give us, potentially the best shot at eradicating a new pest or, controlling or managing new pests, maybe keep their distribution limited. But one of the most interesting things to try to explain about my job is that a lot of times when we go out to try to do stuff, everybody wants to know counts and numbers and trends. But, honestly, for my job, zeros.
Kelly Estes:Zeros on the data sheet are are what we're looking for. So negative data is the best kind of data for me to have with my surveys.
Chris Enroth:Alright. Well, Ken, I guess it is time to dive in for the topic this week. So would you mind kicking us off with the first question, please?
Ken Johnson:I would love to. Alright. So spotted lanternfly. I guess the first thing we should talk about is is what is spotted lanternfly, and why should we be concerned about Yeah.
Kelly Estes:So spotted lanternfly has been around actually for quite some time, and it's an invasive insect. It's a plant hopper. So plant hoppers have needle like mouthparts, so it's a piercing, sucking insect, and it feeds on a lot of different plants. It prefers tree of heaven, grapevines, but we also gotta think other economically important things other than than grapes when we start looking at this whole host of plants that this insect can feed on, which I think, you know, there's dozens upon dozens, close to a 100 different plants it can feed on, though it may not necessarily impact a lot of those. Maples, black walnut, willows also are up on that list as well.
Kelly Estes:So we look at the specialty crop impact, but also more of our potential impact to trees in the landscape as well.
Chris Enroth:So, Kelly, what how did this even get here, the spotted lanternfly? I have a good idea, but could you explain it to us, please?
Kelly Estes:Yeah. So spotted lanternfly is native to Asia. And we first discovered it in The US back in 2014 in Pennsylvania. And since that time, it's become established in several different states out there. And just like it got, introduced to The US, it was moved, artificially.
Kelly Estes:So it is a great hitchhiker. It's gonna move on, potentially firewood with eggs, or the adults themselves can easily, be moved by, planes, trains, and automobiles, actually. So they're very good at hiding in things and, hitching a ride, to the most unexpected places.
Ken Johnson:So that probably the question people are curious about, do do we have it, here in Illinois? And if so, you know, when did it get here? Where where do we find it? And I guess, is it spreading now that if it is here?
Kelly Estes:Yeah. So it is a relatively new pest to Illinois, actually. We first identified it in Illinois in Cook County in 2023. This has been on our radar for a really, really long time. We've probably surveyed for it, somewhere between five and ten years, in different, pathway surveys or specialty crop surveys, our, natural resource type surveys as well, but, it finally made its way into Illinois, and we located it, in a neighborhood up in Cook County.
Kelly Estes:And as we suspected, and like I mentioned before, it readily moves, hitchhikes lots of different ways, and so it was found near a big railroad, Norfolk Southern Rail Yard, up there in Chicago. And so since that time, we've been monitoring the area as well as the rest of the state, But right now, we only have confirmation in Cook County still.
Ken Johnson:So if, you know, like, when Emerald Ash border was there, there's kind of a quarantine setup in Illinois where you couldn't move ash, wood, and stuff like that. Is there anything like that, for spotted lanternfly? I guess in Illinois or nationally.
Kelly Estes:So Illinois does not have any quarantines that are limiting, the movement specifically of spotted lanternfly. Out in Pennsylvania, there's some statewide quarantines there, limiting movement. But, honestly, it is really hard to monitor and regulate, because it can move so easily through unexpected means as well as, the ways we expect it to move. There's so many different ways for it to move that, like I said, it is hard to regulate. We can't necessarily regulate trains and the inspections that it would take to look at every single rail car coming through the state of Illinois or, you know, general traffic.
Kelly Estes:I mean, we do have, you know, we have nursery inspectors in the state of Illinois that are keeping track of what's going on in nurseries. There's other materials that are regulated in the state that are also getting inspected. So that's being looked at for lots of different invasives, including spotted lanternfly, but nothing specifically that's regulating spotted lanternfly movement right now.
Chris Enroth:That's interesting. I I remember seeing the the maps as it slowly progressed from out east to the Midwest, and it just seemed like a very sporadic it's in this county. Now it's way over this county. Now it's over in this county. It did.
Chris Enroth:You can tell just how easily it seems to just hitchhike a ride and show up in these random ish like locations.
Kelly Estes:Well, it is. We've had, like I said, been monitoring for this, for a couple years. And since that initial positive find, we different reports have come in. There's lots of people that are looking for it, plus general outreach to the community. We get information sent in.
Kelly Estes:And so a couple examples, if you will. An Ace Hardware store a couple counties over from Cook County. We found a dead spotted lanternfly. They had, basically cattle water tanks that were stacked and shipped, and so one had wedged itself down in a water tank. It was dead.
Kelly Estes:You think about FedEx. A report I had a report the other day from a FedEx worker who found two dead ones in the FedEx trailer. So they have a uncanny way of finding their way into things, and sometimes it's really hard for them to survive, getting from one location to the next. And you think about, like, those big statewide jumps, and, you know, there's reports of, well, we found a dead one in a wheel well of an airplane in California. So it shows that they can move, very randomly, but they don't always survive the ride, I guess.
Chris Enroth:So okay, Kelly. Let's say maybe we live up in Cook County or someone's listening or watching us right now. What could we or this person expect to see, like like, right now? Like, it's confirmed in my neighborhood. What do I need to expect?
Kelly Estes:So within the past couple months, here, last two months or so, reports are really starting to ramp up, in that Cook County area. And even then, it's not all the way across the county. We have areas, that we're getting repeated results on in. So what people are finding are single adults that have either flown, somewhere or getting caught up in traffic, or you think about insects or moths even that get caught up in wind, and so they're easily moved. And so there are a couple of ways.
Kelly Estes:You know, you could be, if you live in the area, be in your yard or the alley or a parking lot of the local grocery store. Maybe there's trees around, maybe there's not, and you could see a single adult on a tree or on your car. You could see a couple on maybe the base of a tree. We've gotten reports of people waiting on the platform for a metro, for the train, and it lands on their shoulder or in the train, and they see it crawling on the ceiling of the train. So it can be found anywhere, and so we're, I guess, just expecting, we have some localized infestations that we're monitoring.
Kelly Estes:And from those infestations, as we go out from that epicenter, more single reports. And so I think what you're gonna find or have the potential to find is gonna depend on the time of year. So right now in September, adults are present. Males and females are out and about. They're mating, and females are laying eggs.
Kelly Estes:And they'll lay eggs from September and October. Adults will be present probably through early November. Like you mentioned, it's very warm, so insects, warm is good for insect survival. They'll probably be around, until the first frost and maybe repeated frosts. I can remember last year getting a couple reports from people who were out raking leaves and found them under leaf litter.
Kelly Estes:So so till November probably is a really good time till you see the adults. And what we're doing from November through early spring is that they're overwintering as eggs. In egg masses, they can lay them anywhere. They'll lay them on trees, buildings, on firewood, on telephone poles. Research has shown that it likes rusty metal, and so they'll lay them in columns and cover them with a kinda looks like putty, a whitish green putty.
Kelly Estes:And over time, it kinda gets a little dry and cracked. And then as we get through winter and into spring, April, early May, those egg masses, the nymphs are gonna hatch. And they're actually pretty small, a couple millimeters. They're black with white spots and kinda hard to to see. Think the size of a large tick, if you will, and it really isn't until they start progressing through, additional instars.
Kelly Estes:They go through four nymphal stages. As they get a little bigger, they become a little bit more noticeable. So, early instars are black with white spots, and as they get into the third and fourth instar, they become really vibrant red, and then they have white spots with some black stripes. And I think those are probably, something next spring that people would be more apt to find in areas, usually around their host plants, and tree of heaven is a really good host plant to use as a a sentinel plot, if you will. Keep an eye if you especially if you're near areas with an infestation or where spotted lanternfly has been found.
Kelly Estes:Keeping an eye on that tree of heaven is a good potential indicator. And then as you get then into summer towards July, adults will emerge, and so the cycle then continues. And adults, are fairly distinct, although we do have a lot of potential, insects that can be confused with it. But they're about, an inch long. They have light brown tan wings, with black spots on them, and then their under wings are really vibrant, bright orangey red with, some black bars or stripes, towards the outer edge of that wing.
Kelly Estes:And then if their wings are spread, sometimes you can see their abdomen, and that is really bright yellow. It's very eye catching. Once people see it, see a picture of it, they're maybe a little more apt to take notice of things like that.
Chris Enroth:And you have them in Jacksonville. Anyways, for people listening, Ken's holding a dead spotted lanternfly up in a in a it's pinned in a box. So yeah. He doesn't have a live one.
Ken Johnson:No. I see it was like the identification. When first showed up, they would always pictures would always be with the wings spread. But I think usually you see them with the wings folder. You don't see those bright red hind wings all that much.
Kelly Estes:No. You really don't. And I have been getting more, when you talk to some people that have seen them, maybe, as something has, like, fluttered by and landed, the the flash of red kind of grabs their attention. But, yeah, most of the time when you see the adults, their wings are gonna be folded over their back, and most plant hoppers are like that. It's almost like a a wedge or a a triangle shaped body.
Kelly Estes:And, so you're looking for that tannish clay colored insect with the black spots.
Chris Enroth:So, yeah, I guess they are a little camouflaged, maybe a bit more difficult to see because, in my mind's eye, never having seen them physically in person, I'm look I'm I'm thinking, oh, I just gotta look for that red. Just gotta look for that red, but you might not see that.
Kelly Estes:Yeah. And I think some of the things that we get submitted that are easily confused, with, spotted lanternfly, some of the the sphinx moths because they're have that brown tan coloration, and then they have the pink hind wings. They're they're a lot larger than what you're gonna see with a spotted lanternfly. We also get, maybe some assassin bugs or some of these, things that we tend to see in fall climbing around, even like milkweed bugs or boxelder bugs. Because like you mentioned, Chris, in your mind, you're you're thinking, I've gotta see that red orange color.
Kelly Estes:And like you said, that's not necessarily always true.
Chris Enroth:So when I'm they're not here in my neck of the woods. Now you mentioned some of the places to look for. So I'm I'm gonna be scouting where? I'm I'm thinking, like, rusty basketball posts, Tree Of Heaven. Like like, are where should I be scouting if they have not been located in my area?
Kelly Estes:Tree Of Heaven is my my number one go to, just because that is a host that they will, move to. But things like telephone pole poles, firewood, things like that are are other good things. Or if you know, like, campgrounds, things like that, or if you know people that have moved back and forth from areas where spotted lanternfly is known to occur, would be a possibility. It's it's really hard to try to give people good advice on this one because they could just they show up so randomly in in different places. But good places to start would be, like, some host plants like tree of heaven.
Chris Enroth:So we do have quite a bit of tree of heaven. Would you suggest killing tree of heaven, controlling it, leaving a few? Like, how how many tree of heaven do we need for scouting?
Kelly Estes:Not necessarily a lot. Like you said, it it it's everywhere. Mhmm. It's invasive. It's aggressive.
Kelly Estes:It's it's really not something we like to have around. But, particularly in some of these, urban areas where spotted lantern fly is present, it's everywhere. It's along inter some of the interstates, alleys, along the train rail, things like that. Now if you're are a homeowner and you're dealing with some in your yard, getting rid of tree of heaven, sure, you can you can cut that thing down.
Chris Enroth:You
Kelly Estes:know, if you're in an area that has spotted lanternfly, you could potentially leave one as a like I said, we call them sentinel plants or sentinel plots where we we have one good, area or host plant that I mean, if it's the only one there, if they're around, that's what they're gonna go to. So, you could leave one if you you really wanted to. And then like I said, that it is a pretty aggressively growing plant. Cutting it down is is probably the recommended way to get rid of it, but you be aware that it it regenerates pretty easily, and so the the need for a herbicide might be might be there as well.
Chris Enroth:I I have them a lot. Every time I seem to cut one down, treat it with herbicide, 5,000 suckers sprout from the root system. It's I don't know if it's if it's a winning or losing battle, but it's they they are a tough tree.
Kelly Estes:It takes a lot of dedication. Takes a lot of dedication to be that that, person that's gonna control that. And, you know, that's why I'm an entomologist because most of the time, I can get these things on one go.
Chris Enroth:Yep.
Ken Johnson:Alright. So if if somebody were to see a spotted lanternfly, what should they do? And I guess, does it matter, you know, if you're in Cook County or, I guess, the rest of the state where we don't have it? Is there is there kind a different approach to that?
Kelly Estes:There's a couple different ways you can, look at this. We have a email. It's lanternfly@illinois.edu, where we are recommending people to report what they when they believe they have found spotted lanternfly or they think they see that. With any good report, a photo is necessary, unless you actually have the specimen. We can look at real things too, but we absolutely need a photo to positively confirm spotted lanternfly.
Kelly Estes:So a photo, when you saw it, where you saw it. And we map, every report that comes into, that email, and that's all internal. We ask for an address or nearest intersection. We don't release that kind of information out to the general public, but it gives us a good idea of where these reports are coming from. So when we get repeated reports in a neighborhood, we know, oh, there might be an infestation nearby.
Kelly Estes:And, we can work with, cities or towns to let them know, hey. This is what's going on in your area, and things like that. So the more information and more specific information you can share, it's always appreciated. And that email goes to myself. There's a we have a team, that answer those.
Kelly Estes:Scott Schirmer with the Department of Ag. We take, quite a few of those emails that come in, actually, all of them between the two of us, and answer them and, add it to our database and, plot on our map, but it also gets copied to USDA just to kinda keep on the pulse of what's going on. But, honestly, you know, I also keep telling people, if you can't get ahold of me or maybe you don't remember what the email address is, go to extension. Go find Ken. Go find Chris.
Kelly Estes:Go find whoever's, local, and they can help you out, and they're always willing to pass that information along to us as well.
Ken Johnson:And I'll say for pictures, make sure they're in focus and relatively close.
Kelly Estes:That is true. Usually, with with the spiral lantern fly lantern fly photos, that's a mouthful, they've been pretty good. I think we've only had to request some additional photos once or twice, and that was people thought they were reporting egg masses, which can sometimes we get confused with lichen or things like that that may be growing on a tree in the neighborhood. But we have a spotted lanternfly response team, that's, working on detection and spread, information. We also are putting together we have a a homeowner's guide because, you know, for most of the state, we are in a detection mode.
Kelly Estes:We are still looking. We're still, wanting to find out where it's at. Is it just, insects that have hitchhiked, or is it insects where there might be a population in an area? But, for different areas within Cook County, they're they have like, it's here. So we need to figure out a way to, help own homeowners and public public works, groups.
Kelly Estes:So we have a, a a guide that kinda gives a rundown of what spotted lanternfly is, why it's important, and then what can you do, whether that be reporting or dealing with it on your property. And so, you know, I'm gonna send that over to you guys to to share with the group as well.
Chris Enroth:Excellent. Well okay. I'm curious. Is there a way to keep spotted lanternfly out of your yard? Like, I can give my neighbor a couple Japanese beetle traps, and I'm in the clear all summer long as long as they keep them up.
Chris Enroth:Is there any way to just keep them away, keep them out?
Kelly Estes:You don't know how incredibly proud I am of you right now with the Japanese beetle traps. Because, yes, they're Japanese beetles have pheromones that attract to each other, so the best way to use a trap is to give it to everyone around you.
Chris Enroth:Yes.
Kelly Estes:That's not necessarily true to spotted lanternfly, unfortunately. So there's really not a way to keep them out. There are insecticides that can kill, spotted lanternfly, plant hoppers, and that is they're pretty broad spectrum. So if you're in an area, you're like, oh, I've got five, and we're gonna spray the yard. Well, they you may kill those five, but you're gonna kill everything else in the yard too.
Kelly Estes:So think about pollinators, beneficials, things like that. And then, you know, they are very mobile. So if you have something they like, they're just gonna keep coming back in. So, unfortunately, there's not an easy way to keep them at bay. But, you know, squishing them, it it's surefire way to to kill them.
Kelly Estes:When we get to the point where there could be bigger infestations, then I think, you know, our management strategies will definitely change a little bit.
Chris Enroth:Well, I I had the pleasure of meeting two of our master gardener's grandkids. They were they came over before their school started from Pennsylvania a few weeks ago. Pennsylvania must be doing a good job of teaching kids what to do about spotted lanternflies because they're telling me all about squishing them and stomping on them and smashing them. And they were they were so happy to to educate me, an extension person, about spotted lanternfly and how they deal with them out there, which is just stepping on them. And they also talked about, like, sticky paper.
Chris Enroth:Is that something to try?
Kelly Estes:So we're getting in we're getting in deep and, you know, we are really gonna educate the masses today.
Chris Enroth:There you go.
Kelly Estes:So the the marketing and outreach that, Pennsylvania has done has been amazing. They've been dealing with it for a decade now. They kinda know where it's at, so their approach is a little differently, but they don't need like, go ahead and send me a photo, then stomp on it.
Chris Enroth:Mhmm.
Kelly Estes:But it's everywhere. People know to squash them. They know to stomp them. And, you know, we had a colleague that was out in DC for a meeting, and he had to send the group. And he's like, you will not believe this.
Kelly Estes:Like, there's hand drawn posters of stomping spotted lanternfly, and it's just well known. Everybody knows what it is. They know what to do, and, it's something that I think is would we'd love to have here, you know, to something to catch on that that much. Now when you talk about sticky paper, there's lots of research going on with spotted lanternfly right now. And so one of the my bug nerdiness is gonna show.
Kelly Estes:Ken, are you ready? So spotted lanternfly nymphs, they like to climb upwards. And so think about tree of heaven. If there's an egg mass, they're gonna hatch, and I talk with my hands. Sorry.
Kelly Estes:They are gonna climb up, up, up, up, up, then they're out, and then they drop down, and then they climb back up again. So sticky paper around bases of trees, they've tried things like that. Off target effects are a little bit questionable because other things can fly into it, get stuck, and even you think insects and beneficials, pollinators, things like that. But they're also having issues with with birds as well. So everything's kinda the surveying and trapping keeps getting revised, and, there's some great resources on different research, methods or different things they're trying.
Kelly Estes:And I'll shoot some of those links over where you guys can provide, as well if people really like to get into this stuff. But, they have different types of traps they're they're working on, a circle trap and a lampshade trap. So think of a wrap around a tree, and then there's, like, a cover kinda like a lampshade. And so the they found that adults will, like, climb up underneath those. It's kinda protected and will lay eggs in that.
Kelly Estes:Or so there's just lots of cool things they're learning about the behavior and different things like host plants that they like or don't like and timing of things. And so research just continues to evolve with spotted lanternfly, particularly in those big areas like Pennsylvania and New York and Virginia where populations are are much, much higher, and they have these concentrated areas where they can try these things out.
Chris Enroth:Yeah. I don't think I've ever seen a Saturday Night Live skit feature an invasive insect until I saw one with a guy dressed up as a spotted lanternfly. And then the other oh, it might have been last fall, but I tuned into a a Major League Baseball game, and they were showing all of the spotted lanternflies crawling around on the walls of the stadium. That I mean, it people know all about this out east.
Kelly Estes:They really do, and, like, it's cool in a bad kind of way. Yes. You know? And it is, and it's it's you know, Ken had sent me the link, and I'd seen it too where they were picking up you know, sometimes here in Illinois, during bird migration, you'll get the weatherman. He's like, oh, I can see the birds migrating.
Kelly Estes:They're picking up on their radar. And it was about two weeks ago, they thought they were picking up spotted lanternfly movement on radar as well. And so, when you get into areas with big populations, and insects get caught up in the air in jet streams, and they actually can go really, really high in the air. So, again, science is cool. Insects are bad.
Kelly Estes:Not all of them, but this is a bad one. But we're finding out really cool things about it to help us, learn how it moves and how to manage it.
Ken Johnson:So I remember when they when they first showed up not first, but after they've been in Pennsylvania for a while, you'd hear stories of people, like, going out to new areas where they're we just had these mass populations. Like, all the honeydew they're producing, it's, like, raining. Are they still seeing that out there?
Kelly Estes:They are. So, as a plant hopper, it we talked about their mouthparts, and it basically sucks juices, and then they emit this sugary substance called honeydew. Think like aphids. Aphids are something we're familiar with here in Illinois. And so, you know, not only is it coating the the plants that it on or the trees that it's on, And you can I think it's you can go to YouTube?
Kelly Estes:I used to have one in a presentation years ago, like Ken said, when it we first were learning about it, and you can, like, just see it dropping because there was so much onto the understory in a in a wooded area, but it's also coating swing sets, sidewalks, different things like that. So it's kind of a huge nuisance out east as well. You know, at some of our meetings, we talked a lot about, impact to the grape industry, for vineyards. A direct impact is injury to grapes. But in a era of, agritourism, a lot of vineyards also have weddings or have, you know, the come try and they have a sipping area or people aren't gonna wanna get married, with spotted lanternflies flying around them or go out and sit on a sticky bench or things like that.
Kelly Estes:So, you know, there's been stories where we've read of, you know, not only has the impact the grape industry bottom line with their wine or jelly or things like that, all the agritourism type stuff, can feel an impact as well. And then you think about, you know, just the impact of, you know, citizens' general life of being able to go to the park or sit outside in their backyard or have their kids go play on the playset.
Ken Johnson:Spot lanternfly can be the new confetti at weddings.
Kelly Estes:Oh, if only we could bottle it up.
Chris Enroth:Just we just need the wings, though, Ken. Don't want all of it.
Kelly Estes:Mark my words. I bet we could go on Etsy, and I bet they've got earrings that have been put in with wings and things like that. So there's all sorts of ways we can can use them.
Ken Johnson:I'm sure. Sure.
Chris Enroth:I'm thinking of so Southern Illinois has an amazing, like, grape and wine industry, agritourism down there. I visited there several times. Boy, I'm thinking of sitting on their back patios. There's so many arbors and pergolas with vines. Oh my gosh.
Chris Enroth:You're right. You'd be just showered in honeydew.
Kelly Estes:Hopefully, we can avoid that here in Illinois. Yes. And if it is, it's it's years down the road, but it's it's real things that different areas out east deal have dealt with over time.
Ken Johnson:And then all the city mold that moves in.
Kelly Estes:And the city mold.
Chris Enroth:That's so good. Now am I gonna start asking people, do you have aphids, or do you have spotted lanternfly? That's now we have to be more we can ask
Kelly Estes:more questions. I think you have some time. I hope you have some time.
Chris Enroth:I hope so. I hope so. Well, emerald ash borer seemed to travel along the railroad corridors in my area at least. It's where it, like, always see it seemed to pop up in all the counties I cover right along the railroad and neighborhoods right there. So I'll keep my eye out looking at tree heaven along the railroad.
Kelly Estes:Perfect. I will sign you up to help me do surveys next year.
Chris Enroth:Alright. I'll be out there in the field. Well, that was a lot of great information about spotted lanternfly. We are going to put a link down in the show notes of if you think you see this in Illinois, where you can go to report it, and also an excellent homeowner's guide for Illinois residents on spotted lanternfly as well. With a Good Growing podcast production of University of Illinois Extension, edited this week by Ken Johnson, Kelly Estes, thank you so much for joining us today to talk all things Spotted Lanternfly.
Chris Enroth:And you know what? It was honestly news to me a few well, maybe a month or so ago, we emailed you and you're like, yeah, we have it in Illinois. I'm like, really? I had no idea.
Kelly Estes:Maybe one of our best kept secrets that we need to to just shout to the world at this point.
Chris Enroth:Yep. Yep. So sorry to all the people who asked me maybe in the last year about this, ah, we're just waiting to find it. It's here. We found it.
Chris Enroth:So thank you, Kelly.
Kelly Estes:You're welcome. Anytime.
Chris Enroth:And Ken, thank you as always and for joining us talking about your favorite thing this week, bugs. Insects, technically, I guess speaking.
Ken Johnson:Yes. Thank you, Kelly. That was a lot of good information there. And yes, if you need help looking for them, I'll help you too. And Chris?
Kelly Estes:Best for both of you.
Ken Johnson:And Chris, thank you as always. And let's do this again next week.
Chris Enroth:Oh, we shall do this again next week. The horticultural hijinks will continue in this dry fall that we're having right now. We've talked about being droughty and and no rain with the expectation it would cause it to rain. That hasn't happened yet. So we'll see what we talk about next week.
Chris Enroth:Probably watering our plants. So listeners, thank you for doing what you do best and that is listening or if you watched us on YouTube watching. And as always, keep on growing. Welcome to the Good Growing podcast. I am Chris Enroth.
Chris Enroth:Sorry, Ken. You got a lot of work to do this week. Okay. I will do this for real.