![]() ![]() Spotted-lanternfly infestations have since been documented in 11 states, but are centralized in the stretch of Eastern Seaboard from Virginia to New York. The bugs were first found in the United States in Berks County, Pennsylvania, in 2014, after supposedly hitching a ride as a bundle of eggs from China via a shipment of stone. Yet in the eight years since the bugs first made American backyards their home, some of the most shocking damage has come not from spotted lanternflies themselves, but from overzealous (and very human) attempts to stop them. ![]() “If you see thousands of these very large insects feeding on your tree, then the first thought you’re going to have is That tree is not going to survive this,” Brian Walsh, a Penn State Extension educator, told me. The bug’s wide-ranging appetite for at least 103 different plants worldwide, according to the latest research, has perhaps contributed to its reputation as an indiscriminate life-drainer. The motive for attacks of such self-congratulatory glee-and such careful viciousness-is supposed to be a dire environmental prognosis, our belief that the spotted lanternfly is a threat to Mother Nature herself. He developed an app called Squishr, which ranks users’ spotted-lanternfly kills, complete with gory photos as evidence, on a national leaderboard. “It’s kind of a crusade,” according to Brad Line, who lives in Pennsylvania. Haters have organized “squishathons” and spotted-lanternfly-killing pub crawls. And another: “I can honestly say that’s the biggest adrenaline rush I’ve had all 2020.” “I KILLED A SPOTTED LANTERNFLY!!!” another exclaims. “See ’em? SQUISH ’EM!” reads one tweet, complete with a trophy photo of two bug carcasses stuffed inside tiny glass jars. ![]() The dotted, mothlike bugs tend to hop, after all, sometimes narrowly escaping the (almost) perfectly timed thud of a sneaker. Maybe you’ve tried it, after encountering kill-on-sight orders. Squashing spotted lanternflies isn’t always easy. ![]()
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