05/15/2026
MUST READ!!
The large gray insect on your tree trunk that looks like a moth isn't one. Open the wings and the underside is bright red with black spots and a white band.
That's a spotted lanternfly — and it's an invasive species that shouldn't be here.
It's not a moth or a butterfly. It's a planthopper, native to China, first found in the US in Pennsylvania about a decade ago and now confirmed across much of the eastern states. If you're seeing one for the first time in your area, your state agriculture department wants to know 🌿
Spotted lanternflies feed by piercing bark and drinking sap. As they feed, they excrete a sticky residue that coats everything underneath — leaves, cars, sidewalks — and promotes a black mold that weakens the tree further. Their preferred host is tree-of-heaven (another invasive), but they feed on dozens of species including grapevines, apple trees, maples, and walnuts.
They travel by hitchhiking. The egg masses look like smears of dried gray mud on any flat surface — vehicles, grills, firewood, patio furniture, trailer wheel wells. They cross state lines in your trunk without you knowing.
🌱 What to do:
- Learn to recognize the egg masses — gray-brown, roughly the size of a thumbprint, slightly raised, often on the underside of flat surfaces. Scrape them off into a bag of rubbing alcohol or soapy water any time you find them, year-round
- Check your vehicle, trailer, and outdoor equipment before leaving any area with known lanternfly populations. One egg mass on a bumper can start a new infestation a state away
- Report first sightings in your area to your state agriculture department — early detection is the most effective tool for slowing the spread
- If you find adults in an area where they're already established, remove them. Step on them, knock them into soapy water, or use a sticky band on affected trees (wrap the band with wire mesh to prevent birds from getting stuck)
- If you have tree-of-heaven on your property, removing it eliminates their preferred host — but treat the stump, because tree-of-heaven resprouts aggressively from the roots
The gray moth on the tree trunk isn't a moth. And the egg mass on the trailer bumper shouldn't make the trip home with you 🌿
