13 September 2023
They aren’t very good however they know what they like: heat and vertical objects.
In case you haven’t been to Downtown or Oakland recently you’re lacking an insect phenomenon. Our plague of noticed lanternflies (Lycorma delicatula) is sort of drawn to tall buildings and utility poles, particularly when it’s scorching.
Like moths to a flame, noticed lanternflies are visually drawn towards and seemingly captivated by vertical objects comparable to utility poles …
[They] flip and land on the poles when they’re lower than about 10 toes away. They continue to be on the pole for a lot of minutes, even hours, whereas crawling up towards the highest to attempt to take flight once more.
Nonetheless, a big proportion of these launching themselves from the pole are drawn again to the pole, which serves as a kind of “visible magnet” from which the bugs can’t escape for some time.
— Science Day by day: Lanternfly’s attraction to vertical silhouettes might assist monitor, lure it, April 2021
On scorching days I see 1000’s above me, puttering towards the buildings, tapping alongside the buildings as they attempt to discover a place to land.
The bugs cling and fall off, leaving drifts of lanternfly carcasses on the bottom beneath.
There’s a principle that the bugs like vertical objects as a result of they’re such weak fliers that they must climb up and relaunch on their seek for their host tree, the Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus altissima). In accordance with Penn State Extension, they “land on buildings for heat, top and different unknown causes.” In spite of everything, who can know the thoughts of a lanternfly?
Fortuitously we will study from Philadelphia the place their noticed lanternfly plague hit in 2020 (through the pandemic). Right here’s what occurred at a taco store on the bottom flooring of a excessive rise.
Eeewwww!
Observe that Philadelphia had their lanternfly plague in 2020 and now, three years later, they’re questioning the place all of the bugs have gone. I’m positive we will anticipate 2-3 summers of this nonsense. Definitely by 2026 noticed lanternflies will simply be a nasty reminiscence in Pittsburgh.
(credit are within the captions)
