Knowledgebase

Spotted lanternflies #907861

Asked June 30, 2025, 2:06 PM EDT

My Welsh Terrier eats the nymphs like crazy. Gives her diarrhea (at least that's what the vet and I think) we've got a temporary solution, but any ideas for the next form of its life cycle? On a good note, the spiders are catching them in webs.

Montgomery County Maryland

Expert Response

Nothing will eradicate Spotted Lanternfly; they occur across the state, and in several other states as well. No pesticide is lanternfly-specific, and the use of an insecticide risks harm to other insects, including pollinators, beneficial predators (including spiders), and other harmless species like fireflies, butterflies, etc. Given the impracticality of using an insecticide (even if they worked well with few side effects, they would not remove a population for long), we do not recommend that approach. If they are bothering a pet that keeps eating them, all you can do is to try discouraging the animal from eating them, or trying to keep them from accessing the lanternflies. Depending on what the lanternflies have been feeding on, they may taste distasteful; a favored food is Tree of Heaven, an invasive tree, and the chemicals they store in their bodies from feeding on that species give them an unpleasant taste, which is why the lanternflies evolved to have their warning colors (red/black/white) to caution predators that they taste bad. If the lanternflies are not eating species like Tree of Heaven, then they might not taste bad at all, but the exoskeleton may be to blame for digestive problems, which was the presumed case when dogs ate lots of periodical cicadas when they were abundant several years ago.

Miri

Loading ...