His team has tracked new infestations in Michigan and Indiana. Travis, the spotted lanternfly national policy manager for the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, monitors the pest's movement across the country and partners with local agencies to help stop the spread. That means the number of states where spotted lanternflies appear could expand. However, invasive species and where they are distributed can change over time. To date in the U.S., the insect has remained mostly a threat to the Northeast. There has been no reported sighting of the spotted lanternfly in Arizona. By the time September comes, they will transition to their last stage before adulthood.Īdult spotted lanternflies can grow to be an inch long and a half-inch wide. Their body is mostly covered by pinkish-tan wings covering their bodies.Ī map showing where the spotted lanternfly has established itself in the Northeast, Midwest and the South as of spring 2023. The black nymphs begin to appear as early as April and as late as July. Later, they transition to be spotted red and can be three-quarters of an inch long. Newly formed nymphs have black with white spots and are a quarter-inch long. Once hatched and before they reach adulthood, spotted lanternflies appear in their nymph phase–the insect equivalent of being a teenager. Adults often lay eggs on tree trunks, rocks and other objects where they can fit their inch-long egg masses.

Their eggs are a brownish-gray color and waxy when first laid.

'(The) spotted lanternfly is not actually a true fly but an invasive species of planthopper,' as described by Dawn Gouge, an entomologist with the University of Arizona. Instead, they get around by hopping from leaf to leaf using their wings as support. The invasive insects are not great at flying long distances. The spotted lanternfly is easily recognizable by the pattern of spots on its body.

Loathe to you