Northern New Castle Country Quarantined
Under the quarantine, you basically can’t move Landscaping, remodeling, construction materials, firewood of any species, packing materials, all plants, plant parts including all live and dead trees, perennial and annual plants, and mulch, outdoor household articles like RVs, lawnmowers, chairs, grills, tarps, tile, stone, deckboards, and other vehicles not stored indoors, out of your zip code unless you complete a residential compliance checklist indicating that you inspected and know that no living life stage of the spotted lanternfly is present on the articles. The checklist is available online at https://de.gov/hitchhikerbug.
The spotted lanternfly apparently entered the country in Philadelphia and has spread from there. Pennsylvania is devoting millions to study and eradicate it. This Philly Voice article has an embedded video of them swarming.
The insects, which hop more than fly, feed by sucking the sap of a variety of trees including, but not limited to, pine, maple, cherry, apple, and tree of heaven.
They also damage grapevines, which is frightening to the local vineyard industries in Pennsylvania and New Jersey-
True. But I think the stone-fruit crops are the real worry for the Pa. Dept. of Ag. Lots of orchards in Pennsylvania.
They are one of the few pests that can kill hops. this is war.
People should take a look at the links to see what the egg masses look like — basically a splotch of light-colored mud, very easy to overlook. And they hitchhike on all sorts of surfaces, including automobile bumpers, so it’s easy to facilitate their spread without meaning to.