After spotted lanternflies invaded Pennsylvania, biology teacher Dave Babik implemented a creative system to limit the numbers at Penn-Trafford High School.
Babik first created his “Lantern Fly Kill Count” in the fall of 2022 because it was the first time they were a really big problem in the county. In his biology and environmental biology classes, they talk about invasive species, like lanternflies, and how they can change an ecosystem. Babik said that he was trying to encourage the kids to kill the bugs at home, and then they began killing them at the school, too.
Babik added, “Usually, invasive species get there because of people making mistakes. So, it’s not like we’re murderers or anything, it’s just a good idea to remove the species.”
The environmental biology class goes outside at least once a week, and the regular biology class is less than that. The kill count increases by about 85 lanternflies each day they go outside. The classes usually kill the bugs by simply stepping on them. As well as that, Babik brings a meter stick outside to reach ones in higher places, such as trees, that are more difficult to reach. In addition to these methods, others use vinegar, spray soapy water, vacuum them, use neem oil, place sticky wraps on trees, make circle traps, and scrape their eggs in the fall and winter. Babik added that things that would kill bugs like stink bugs or, cockroaches s, etc. can also kill lantern flies.
“We pretty much keep the kill count in class, but I do have contact with the Penn State Extension. Penn State and their agricultural studies are the ones who first alerted me to the invasion of the lantern flies years ago when they entered the eastern side of the state,” Babik mentioned. “They had a lot of resources explaining what they do, how to kill them, how to identify them, their eggs, and other things like that. So, if we get to a point where they want to know data, I would share it with them.”
According to Penn State Extension, the lanternflies were first spotted in Pennsylvania in September 2014 in Burks County. Since then, they have spread to 51 counties in Pennsylvania and many bordering states. This invasive species arrived in the United States on a stone shipment from China in 2012. Though the number of lanternflies has been increasing for years, recent numbers have begun to drop.
“In my environmental class, we go and study the environment. I was explaining to the kids what the lanternflies are, what they do, and why we kill them,” Babik stated. “On the first day, we only found one and it was big news. As the year went on, we found more and we started to keep count. It’s been sort of a sense of pride about how many we could kill.”
Additionally, Babik said they could, now that lanternflies are here, become part of the food chain. When a species first comes into an ecosystem, there are no predators because the typical predators do not yet know that they are a food source. He has even read reports stating that praying mantises are starting to eat the pests. Also, if there are many dead lanternflies in an area, they could decompose and enrich the soil.
Sydney Mularski, Media Manager