Vineyards Facing An Insect Invasion May Turn To Aliens For Help
"Walking around a park near Allentown, Pa., I didn't even notice the bugs at first.
Then Heather Leach arrived. She's an insect expert from Penn State University."
"She pointed me toward the trees, and suddenly I realized they were everywhere: spotted lanternflies. An army of gray bugs, each one about an inch long, black spots on their wings, was climbing the trees' trunks. They marched slowly along branches. They were sucking the trees' sap, excreting some of it as sugary water that rained down on us in a gentle shower."
"This is the latest great insect invasion to hit the United States."
"'They are kind of ugly, especially when there's thousands of them,' Leach says. 'Poke at them and you'll see how strong of a hopper they are; they just take off.' She demonstrates. The lanternflies jump so fast and so far, they're just a blur in the air. It makes me laugh."
"'Yeah, they can be entertaining,' Leach says. 'You see a lot of kids playing with them, trying to stomp on them.'"