Southern Delaware residents are asked to be on the lookout for the spotted lanternfly, an insect detrimental to Delaware’s agricultural industry, forests and residential areas. The species is a destructive and invasive planthopper that attacks many hosts, including trees, shrubs, grapes and hops. Five years after the state’s first confirmed spotted lanternfly was found in New Castle County, it has made its way to Sussex, triggering a statewide quarantine, the Department of Agriculture said recently.
- They’re here in Newark, as well. — Cindy Burge
- Here in my front yard. Even my neighbor’s yard, and they don’t have trees or bushes. The bugs have learned to adapt. Have seen them for a couple months now in the New Castle area. — Jessie Rosamond
- Here in Elsmere/Wilmington area, also. — Becky West
- Did I read this right? We can only kill them certain times of the year? Why can’t we just kill them when we see them? Which is what I’ve been doing. — Jessie Rosamond
- Kill them any time, day or night. Any time you happen to come across them, in whatever form you find them, as eggs, larvae or adult. They will do untold damage to crops and negatively impact the local economy that depends on and tries to bring their harvest to our tables. — Dennis Kirkwood
