‘They don’t belong in our environment’: US vineyards battle spotted lanternflies as invasive insects spread | US news

Around grape harvest time about three years ago, a worker at Zephaniah Farm Vineyard in Leesburg, Virginia, noticed beetles about 1 inch long, with gray and black wings and bright red underwings, in the tops of some trees.

Although the insects were beautiful, they were there for the vines and were not a welcome visitor to the vineyard, which sits atop a farm the Zephaniah family has run since 1949.

These have seen lanternflies, invasive insects that likely play a role in the vineyard producing about half as many grapes in 2025 as the previous year, according to co-owner and viticulturist Tremain Hatch.

“If we spend a lot of time growing grapes but have half the crop and can make half the wine, that’s not a good thing,” Hatch said.

Zephaniah Farm isn’t the only U.S. business to see lanternflies sucking up their income.

Their population in the US has increased in recent years, impacting the winemaking and forestry industries. For example, in New York, researchers predicted The bugs can cost wineries millions of dollars, he said.

Scientists aren’t sure what the lanternfly population will look like this summer and fall, but they expect them to continue to spread across the country. That’s why researchers are looking for ways to protect vegetation and the wine industry from insects.

One solution? Smash them.

“I definitely understand why winegrowers or grape growers are and should be worried,” said Nathan Derstine, an adjunct assistant professor of biology at the University of Richmond.

Spotted lanternflies are native to China and were first detected in the United States in 2014 in Berks County, Pennsylvania. They have since expanded to 19 states. largest invasions According to the US report dated August 2025, in the northeast and Washington DC Ministry of Agriculture.

“It’s pretty common with invasive insects that when they establish themselves in a new location, they’re not constrained by some of their natural enemies in their native range, so they spread pretty quickly here,” Derstine said.

The insects suck the sap of a variety of plants, including vines, hops, and fruit trees, and then secrete honeydew, a sugary liquid that can facilitate the growth of sooty mold.

When this happens with grapes, “It’s not something you want to harvest, incorporate into wine, or sell, so in addition to being a problem in the forest, it can also cause problems for these commodity crops,” he said, saying he expects them to continue to spread across the country.

David All, an arborist, sees lanternflies everywhere during his daily walks with his dog in Upper Arlington, Ohio, which the Arbor Day Foundation has designated a Tree City USA for its commitment to community trees.

Insects infesting a tree during the summer months, followed by a particularly cold winter, can cause branches to break or roots to rot, All said.

The key for homeowners is to eliminate the bugs.

“It might be a little messy, but it will save your tree,” All said.

Insects often travel by cars, trucks and trains. Brian Walsh, a Penn State Extension horticulture educator who studies lanternflies, said swatting them can also help prevent their spread.

“They don’t belong in our environment,” Walsh said. “And while you may not have a huge impact on the population overall by killing each individual you see, encounter, and kill, it does mean you’ll inadvertently move into a new area.”

Cleveland Metroparks has experienced a significant increase in lanternflies in recent years, said Adam Regula, the park’s climate resilient forest manager. In addition to stressing trees, the sweet liquid secreted by insects can also attract yellow jackets and hornets.

The organization responded by removing all trees of paradise from its parks, the insects’ favorite accommodation plan.

In 2025, the organization began sending volunteers with dogs trained to sniff out lanternfly egg masses and signal their location. Regula said her keepers then scraped up and destroyed the eggs. Staff also began setting lanternfly traps on tree trunks.

“Our efforts are really focused on mitigating the disturbance and its impact on public spaces,” Regular said. “We haven’t seen any major impacts to our forested ecosystems yet, so we’re encouraged by that.”

Drew Harner, an assistant professor of viticulture at Virginia Tech, said vineyard owners in Virginia are struggling because adult lanternflies begin entering growing areas in late summer, which is also the time grapes begin to ripen.

“It’s really hard to manage them,” Harner said. “Many times a grower will have to use pesticides, but as they get closer to harvest they can’t use certain products, or there are a limited number of products they can use.”

Even if they manage to reduce the population, the number of lanternflies around the vineyard is so high that they reintroduce the vegetation, so “you’re stuck with this rapid population dynamic,” Harner said.

He and other scientists are trying to find ways to protect vineyards. They are exploring potential strategies such as: release of parasitoids These drugs, from East Asia, are effective in killing lanternfly nymphs and their eggs, as well as repelling spores that form a fungus that will infect and kill the insects.

Harner said vineyard owners also began removing their trees of paradise.

Although the lanternfly population in the U.S. is growing, Derstine of the University of Richmond does not expect the insects to cause as much damage as, say, the emerald ash borer, an invasive Asian beetle that has killed hundreds of millions of ash trees.

“This is a new occupation,” Derstine said. “It’s been about 12 years. That’s not a very long time in the grand scheme of things, and so there probably hasn’t been a lot of adaptation or any chance for any response by natural enemies or parasitoids or things that are present here.”

But Virginia vineyard owners aren’t just waiting for nature to take its course. For the past three years, they have hosted an event called Scraping for Grapes, where volunteers remove lanternfly egg masses from vines and poles, which we hope will reduce the number of adult insects next year.

This year Zephaniah Farm hosted approximately 60 volunteers over two days.

“When a new pest emerges and we’re not sure how to deal with it, it’s very disturbing and scary,” Hatch said. “It means a lot to have community members come out and help us.”