The spotted lanternfly is making a comeback, and New Jersey is next in line for a million-strong invasion. If your area was affected last year, expect to see them again in 2024 unless you’ve taken steps to control the population. Even if your area was spared last year, don’t assume you’re safe this time around.
‘It’s sporadic, at best,’ said Joe Zoltowski, a division director in the New Jersey Department of Agriculture.
Zoltowski predicts that spotted lanternflies will ‘hatch out soon’ – around the beginning of May, weather permitting. ‘The southern states – they have some hatch already,’ he said. ‘Maryland just started getting hatch last week.’
The Asian native has established itself in every New Jersey county. In 2023, officials received fewer reports and complaints from residents in the western part of the state compared to previous years, but more issues were reported in the northeast – Bergen County and surrounding areas.
‘I expect that to continue because they are moving eastward,’ said Zoltowski.
Rather than aiming for eradication, officials in the Garden State are working to manage the population. While crews are applying treatments at seaports and along major transportation corridors to limit the invasive bug’s spread, select towns and counties are running their own treatment programs and receiving government reimbursements for the cost.
According to Zoltowski, teams have scraped approximately 150,000 egg masses from surfaces since last season, preventing millions of lanternflies from hatching.
For years, New Jersey has been urging residents to ‘stomp out’ spotted lanternflies and remove any egg masses on their property. A single egg mass can produce 30 to 50 nymphs. New masses look like light gray mud, while older ones resemble cracked mud.
The insect goes through several stages before reaching adulthood in late July or early August, when it begins laying eggs again in September.
