It was a ordinary day. Reading about the spotted laternflies which seem to have gone AWOL. Just a year ago, New York City's flashiest new insects were impossible to miss. This year, the insects have all but vanished. Although there is no official count of the insects, spotted lantern flies have been more difficult to spot in the city this past summer, experts said. If 2020 was the year the invasive insects took New York City, 2024 might be remembered as the year New Yorkers got their city back. "They're still out there," said Brian Eshenaur, an invasive species specialist at Cornell University. "But, we're just not seeing them at the numbers we have in the past couple of years." Could it be that New Yorkers' fancy footwork has kept the bugs' population at bay? "We like to think that we're making a difference by stomping on the spotted lantern fly," Eshenaur said, noting that a single female can lay more than 100 eggs in a season. "So if we're doing that, yeah, we might be making somewhat of an impact." But he and several other experts noted that factors other than squishing the bugs may have more to do with their decline. "You'll notice I mentioned that one last," Eshenaur said in an interview. Scientists still have a lot to learn about the dynamics of the lantern flies' American invasion, and it is too soon to say whether this year presents the new normal. The lantern fly is also continuing to spread. "It's still on the move," Ehenaur said. "We'll be living with the spotted lanternfly in the foreseeable future." Spotted laternflies, which are native to parts of Asia, were first detected in the United States in 2014 in eastern Pennsylvania. The insects pose no danger to humans, but they are agricultural pests, feeding on the sap of grape vines, fruit trees and other plants. They are also hardy travelers. Officials urged members of the public to report lanternfly sightings and to stamp or squash the insects - a challenge that many (thought not all) New Yorkers took up with enthusiasm. But this past summer. has felt different. The lantern flies are still blanketing some neighborhoods, including parts of Staten Island. But overall, the insect population appears to have stabilized or even, in some places, declined. "The invasion wave, as we call it, has dissipated somewhat," said José Ramírez-Garofalo, an ecologist at Rutgers University. The same pattern has played out in Philadelphia, experts said, and is not uncommon with biological invasions. "First you see really rapid population increases, which is what we experienced in 2020 and 2021," Ramirez-Garofalo said. "And eventually you do see that spotted lantern flies and other invasive spies eventually get what we call natural enemies." Over the last few years, some birds, spiders and wasps might have learned that lantern flies could make a tasty meal; these predators might now be helping to keep the lanternfly population in check, establishing a new ecological equilibrium. "Think they're just integrating into our ecosystem," Moore said of the lanternflies. In some places. the masses of lanternflies might also simply have moved on after chewing through their favorite foods. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
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| Getting ready to squish a lanternfly! |
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