Imagine finding not just one, but millions of pesky lanternflies in New York City. That’s the grim reality New Yorkers are gearing up for as the annual emergence of these invasive insects is expected within weeks.
Originating from China, the spotted lanternfly was first detected in Pennsylvania in 2014. Since then, the insects have spread across 21 states, reaching New York in 2020. Despite efforts to contain them, the population has continued to grow.
These spotted invaders have now made their presence known in half of New York’s 62 counties. From the bustling streets of Manhattan to the agricultural landscapes upstate, the lanternflies are poised to feast on plant sap, posing a threat to local flora.
The extent of this year’s infestation remains uncertain. Reports indicate a troubling increase in sightings, doubling from 5,000 in 2021 to 9,500 in 2022, with a notable surge continuing into 2023.
“Last year’s numbers were slightly down compared to the previous year, but these are new insects in a new environment,” explained Gil Bloom, an entomologist and president of Standard Pest Management in New York City. “It’s challenging to predict exactly what will happen this year as they adapt to the weather conditions.”
“Last year was a little slower than the previous year, but they’re new insects in a new environment,” entomologist and president of NYC extermination company Standard Pest Management Gil Bloom, told the Post. “So we really can’t say with any full degree of predictability what’s going to happen this year as they encounter this weather.”
He added that for many New Yorkers, the fascination stemmed from their novelty, comparing them to an “alien invader.”
Eats shoots — and never leaves
“Lanternfly” is actually a misnomer. They’re actually plant hoppers — insects that siphon up plant juices using their long mouthparts, like a locust on a liquid diet.
And they’re thriving.
These hardy bugs have flourished in the Northeast, aided by a lack of natural predators, longevity and their bountiful reproductive cycle.
“They come out as adults in end of July, but they really don’t start mating and laying eggs until September, October,” Julie Urban, an associate research professor at Penn State’s Department of Entomology, told the Post. “So that’s freakishly long adult life stage for an insect.”
In fact, a 2024 study out of NYU found that the bugs are living up to five months longer than they did when they first arrived, borne aloft by milder urban winters and other factors.
This longevity gives them ample time to reproduce. Females can lay up to two clutches of 30-50 eggs, which survive the winter and hatch as nymphs in the spring.
And these babies aren’t picky eaters, chowing down on a “hundred different species of trees and plants,” Urban said.
“They can feed on so many different things that even if they’ve been feeding for multiple years and they’ve kind of locally depleted trees in one particular area, they can just move on the next year,” she said. “Conditions might not be perfect in the place that have been great for the last three generations, but then just over a little bit, those trees aren’t depleted.’
Stairway to ‘Heaven’
Part of their success is due to the growing presence in the region of the Tree Of Heaven, a similarly adaptable Asian invader that’s taken New York by storm, providing an abundant and sustainable food source.
Urban said this tree of life “outcompetes the heck out of other trees and plants” because it produces toxic chemicals that “knock out other trees.”
It also likes to “grow in disturbed corridors,” per Urban, who added, “you can see it all along I- 95.”
Like with many Big Apple transplants, city living has helped make these insects more resilient, per a recent study.
“Cities may act as evolutionary incubators that help an invasive species to better deal with pressures like heat and pesticides, which then helps them to better adapt to new environments,” study lead author Fallon (Fang) Meng, a biologist at New York University, told Live Science.
A real fly in the ointment
Thankfully, for New Yorkers, the impact is more irritating than apocalyptic — but hard to ignore. “People don’t like bugs hitting them upside the head,” said Urban, adding that they excrete sugary “honeydew” that’s a magnet for “sooty mold.”
“We see it [the fungus] darkening people’s decks,” the bug buff explained. “So from the nuisance factor, it could contribute to potentially a loss of tourism.”
Meanwhile, Bloom, who is frequently tasked with clearing the bugs from landscaped areas on the Upper West and Upper East Side, observed that the droppings on infested trees and fences can attract stinging wasps.
Contrary to popular belief, however, the bugs don’t actually kill most trees but rather slow them down by scaling back photosynthesis. “It’ll reduce starch levels in the roots and whatnot, but it doesn’t knock it out,” said Urban. “It’s a stressor like anything else. And so that’s the good news.”
The bug boom bodes worse for the wine industry upstate, particularly the Finger Lakes region, where the pest was spotted for the first time in 2024.
A 2025 study examining two vineyard-rich regions in Lake Erie and the Finger Lakes found that potential losses could escalate rapidly — from $1.5 million in the first year to $8.8 million by year three.
“It could be almost like a game changer,” said Urban.
The war on bugs
Go figure: eradicating lanternflies has proven challenging. The viral “Stomp It” campaign in 2023 — which encouraged Gothamites, including kids, to squash the bugs on sight — has barely made a dent.
In 2024, pest management experts at Cornell University claimed that they’d turned the tide, only for it to come out later that the dip likely reflected naturally fluctuating plant populations rather than the smashing offensive.
Bloom said pesticides are difficult to employ without collateral damage. “Their peak time of activity when people notice is also when pollinators are out,” he lamented. “So chemical treatments for them are difficult.”
Even DIY methods have drawn mixed reviews
Hoovering up the bugs via vacuum cleaner can help in residential areas, but trying to repeat this in parks or wooded areas is “an exercise in futility,” per Bloom.
By the time they hatch, it’s often too late. “Now is the key time to be on top of it,” said Bloom.
Per the scientist, this means “removing” and “destroying” the egg cases — 1-to-1.5-inch lichen-like brown smears that can appear on meters, signs and fences along with trees.
He advised scraping them off or deploying low-toxicity pesticides. Some pest experts have even recruited fly-sniffing dogs after a Cornell study found that these pest pointers can detect the eggs with alarming accuracy.
The good news is that some birds and bats are starting to gain an appetite for these previously predator-less pests, while scientists plan to enlist the nymphal parasitoid — a natural biocontrol agent from China that parasitizes lanternfly babies.
Urban said that during an “entomology meeting in Saratoga Springs” several weeks ago, biologist Hannah Broadley, who is leading the charge, said we’re “weeks away” from submitting an application for deploying this measure.
But relief won’t come quickly.
“That’ll take at least a year, but basically we might be able to do releases of it in 2028,” she said.
Until then, the interlopers could be here to stay. “It’s an oddity that I think [we] kind of have to learn to live with in this city to some extent,” said Bloom.
