Field plate · Lycorma delicatula
Spotted lanternfly
The insect Erie County is watching for, not yet living with. Its page exists so that the first gravid female on a grape-country fence post gets recognised and reported — not shrugged at, and not panicked over.
Plate 26 of 28. Drawn in profile to the identification marks named below; the scale rule is a drawing convention — sizes are given in the text.
Identification marks
Adults (from July): about 25 mm, grey forewings with black spots, and — unmistakable in flight or at rest with wings parted — scarlet hindwings with black and white bands. Nymphs are black with white spots, turning red in the last stage before adulthood. Egg masses (autumn to spring) look like a smear of grey-brown mud or putty, 25–40 mm, on bark, fence posts, vehicles, and anything else stored outdoors.
Status in Erie County — stated carefully
As of the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture's 2025 survey reporting, the spotted lanternfly is not established in Erie County and Erie County is not under quarantine. Isolated hitchhiker adults have been reported in the county, including around Presque Isle — single insects that arrived on vehicles or goods, not a breeding population. Neighbouring Venango County was added to the state quarantine in April 2025. Status changes by season; the Department's current quarantine map is the authority, and this page's job is the watching, not the declaring.
Why Erie, why the grape belt
Erie County grows more grapes than anywhere else in Pennsylvania — the Lake Erie Concord belt — and the lanternfly feeds heavily on grapevines as well as its favoured host, tree-of-heaven. A breeding population here is an agricultural problem first and a yard problem second: heavy feeding stresses vines and the sooty mould that grows on its honeydew fouls fruit and surfaces. That is why surveillance here is intensive and why a report from a vineyard edge or a rail yard matters.
What to do if you find one
Photograph it, note the place and date, and report it to the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture — through the Department's online spotted lanternfly report form, or its hotline, 1-888-4BAD-BUG (1-888-422-3359). Kill the insect if you can do so safely and keep it or the photograph: a confirmed report needs evidence. Scrape any egg mass into alcohol or hand sanitiser in a sealed container — do not just knock it to the ground.
What actually works — at watch stage
Vehicle and goods checks: after travel to a quarantined county, walk the car, trailer, and anything that sat outdoors there — wheel wells, roof racks, firewood, stone, and nursery stock are the rides it takes. Manage tree-of-heaven where it crowds vineyard and rail edges, on advice from Extension. There is no yard treatment to apply against a pest that is not here; anyone selling one for Erie County is selling theatre.
What doesn't
Pre-emptive spraying, banding every tree in the yard, and killing look-alikes on sight. Native planthoppers and several moths get mistaken for lanternflies each summer; check the red hindwing before acting, and let the Department confirm.
When to call a licensed pro
You do not hire an exterminator for a watch pest — you report it. Professionals enter the picture for tree-of-heaven management and, in quarantined counties, for the treatments the Department directs there.