<font color='black' size='2' face='Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif'><font size="2">Just to update folks on developments in the SLF invasion. Here's some of the news reported locally here in Pennsylvania (and now New Jersey). Read the full articles, please. I'm quoting a few bits, for a flavor of where we're at now.<br>
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<div style="clear:both"><font size="2"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.northjersey.com/story/news/environment/2017/10/08/tree-destroying-bug-on-njs-doorstep/618329001/">http://www.northjersey.com/story/news/environment/2017/10/08/tree-destroying-bug-on-njs-doorstep/618329001/</a></font><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="black"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="black"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="black"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="black"><font size="2"></font></font></font></font></font><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="black"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="black"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="black"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="black">
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<div style="clear:both"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="black"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="black"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="black"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="black"><font size="2"> (2) Emelie Swackhamer is one of the people working to contain it. Her video is a good introduction to the situation, as of this spring</font></font></font></font></font><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="black"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="black"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="black"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="black"><font size="2">. I've cued it to start at the 13m45s mark where, in May, she explains how they expected the quarantine to work.<br>
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</font></font>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXyfx5pBE1k&t=13m45s<br>
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(3) At a hearing this past week in the State Capitol, <br>
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<font size="2"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="black"><font size="2"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="black">“Pennsylvania Agriculture Secretary Russell C. Redding said the agency is on the hunt for solutions to the epidemic. ‘We
have an exceptional team that has been working on this,’ he said. ‘<font size="2">WE ARE HOPEFUL THAT WE CAN FIND A SOLUTION,</font> but after fighting this pest
for several years, we know that <font size="2">WE CONTINUE TO FACE CHALLENGES</font> as it
adapts to its new surroundings.’”<font size="2"> [Emphasis added.]<br>
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<a href="http://www.readingeagle.com/news/article/spotted-lanternfly-worries-berks-county-businesses" target="_blank">http://www.readingeagle.com/news/article/spotted-lanternfly-worries-berks-county-businesses</a><br>
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<div>(4) “Experts on the panel, however, cautioned that the focus of efforts to
combat the spotted lanternfly's spread needs to be on the outer edges,
where the insect can still be stopped.</div>
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<div>“‘Our goal is not exclude
the high volumes [of spotted lanternflies] on the inside, but <font size="2">IF WE DON'T DO A BETTER JOB OF CONTROLLING THE LEADING EDGE,</font> it's not going to
matter what's going on on the inside, because the inside is going to be
the state of Pennsylvania, you know, the rate of spread that we're
seeing over time, so WE HAVE TO FIND A WAY to contain it first,’ said
Matthew Rhoads of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.</div>
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<div><font size="2">“</font>Whatever is done, both lawmakers, agriculture officials, and business owners agreed that time is running out to find a solution<font size="2">. </font>Schwank closed the hearing by suggesting that the committees consider convening again in January.”</div>
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<a href="http://www.wfmz.com/news/berks/pa-lawmakers-on-spotted-lanternfly-we-have-an-epidemic/640386357" target="_blank">http://www.wfmz.com/news/berks/pa-lawmakers-on-spotted-lanternfly-we-have-an-epidemic/640386357</a><br>
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--<br>
Kirk Wattles<br>
kwattles@verizon.net<br>
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-----Original Message-----<br>
From: barbara.bloetscher <barbara.bloetscher@agri.ohio.gov><br>
To: Kirk Wattles <kwattles@verizon.net>; pollinator <pollinator@lists.sonic.net><br>
Sent: Tue, Oct 10, 2017 1:45 pm<br>
Subject: RE: [Pollinator] Spotted Lanternfly - a growing threat to insect pollinators<br>
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Before people panic too much,<br>
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Read the control strategy. PA’s strategy and recommendation is to use Tree of Heaven (which is their main host plant) as a trap crop then remove them. Although the spotted lanternfly may feed on apple, grape, willow, oak, walnut, silver maple, common lilac, poplar, eastern white pine, and rose, the current emphasis is to control the pest on grapes and Tree of Heaven.<br>
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Remember that most contact insecticides can be more detrimental to pollinators than neonics.<br>
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Please Read the following for more information.<br>
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https://extension.psu.edu/what-to-do-if-you-find-spotted-lanternfly<br>
http://www.agriculture.pa.gov/Protect/PlantIndustry/spotted_lanternfly/Pages/default.aspx<br>
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Thanks for your post.<br>
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<br>
Barbara Bloetscher<br>
State Apiarist/Entomologist<br>
Ohio Department of Agriculture<br>
Plant Health Bldg #23<br>
8995 East Main St.<br>
Reynoldsburg, OH 43068<br>
ODA Apiary website: http://www.agri.ohio.gov/divs/plant/apiary/apiary.aspx<br>
614-728-6373<br>
Fax 614-728-6453<br>
BBloetscher@agri.ohio.gov<br>
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</font><font size="2">Sent: Tuesday, October 10, 2017 10:14 AM<br>
To: pollinator@lists.sonic.net<br>
Subject: [Pollinator] Spotted Lanternfly - a growing threat to insect pollinators<br>
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Friends,<br>
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We're having a problem here in eastern Pennsylvania which will likely have dire consequences for pollinator insects (and others) in a wide section of the U.S., if not nationally.<br>
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I'm not an expert, but I know that 1 + 1 + 1 = 3.<br>
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1 - The Spotted Lanternfly (Lycorma delicatula) is an leaf-hopper-type insect that got started as an 'invasive' in Berks County, Pennsylvania 4-5 years ago.<br>
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1 - Official resources for containing and extirpating the SLF are inadequate. The would-be quarantine zone has expanded several times in the last two years, with nothing to suggest that the invasion will be contained. Wherever the Ailanthus tree grows, they will multiply.<br>
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1 - Neonicotinoid pesticides are the only "best" treatment, and probably neonics (and other pesticides) will be very heavily used by official agencies, farmers, and DIY horticulturalists, and anyone who wants to protect their trees. With knock-on effects on many other insects.<br>
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I don't know how far knowledge of this problem has reached, but I see little sign of concern or news coverage outside of the locally affected areas.<br>
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I won't elaborate on the details of the problem. Again, I'm not an expert. I'm a beekeeper. I heard through beekeeping clubs in the affected area that local people were freaking out, 4-6 weeks ago when the SLF graduated from the instar/nymph stage and began dropping from the trees in massive numbers. When I investigated, I began to see how neonics were being promoted by word of mouth and recognized by the officials running the current efforts. And how the invasion is in the mid-phase of exponential growth.<br>
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A lot of the relevant information and links are collected in a facebook group 'Spotted Lanternfly' and on a facebook page 'Spotted Lanternfly Watch.' (Links to those may trigger spam filters, so you can just look them up for yourselves.) The main agencies involved currently are the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture and Penn State University.<br>
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It should be self-evident, to anyone who knows bugs reading through that material (including the comments by knowledgeable observers in the zone), how bad this problem is likely to be.<br>
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--<br>
Kirk Wattles<br>
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