ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Ohio Extension Office Educator Dan Lima is putting the word out to watch for spotted lantern flies and head off any damage to area trees.

“It’s an invasive insect all over Pennsylvania right now. It was originally found in Philadelphia and it’s migrating through what we think are vehicles, trains, and trucks and trailers. It’ll lay its egg masses and when they hatch, they essentially ruin trees. They’re a sucking type of insect where they suck the sap and they create a sooty mold that attracts wasps, but it can really set a tree back, and it can be very devastating to fruit producers with wineries in the area, orchards, this insect is very detrimental to agriculture,” Lima said.

“We found some last year in these eastern counties, but we are scared that we will start having infestations as opposed to just finding them here, and it’s at the large numbers that they become a very big agricultural problem,” Lima said. “They’ve been detected, but it’s not an outbreak. It’s not an infestation.”

He said some have been detected at a truck stop near Barkcamp State Park in Belmont, and along the Ohio River.

“We’re monitoring. We’re setting up more traps. Hopefully we can slow down the infestation by destroying the egg masses,” he said. “There are treatments that we can do, but we’re hoping to slow down the infestation.”

He advises people to know the warning signs.

“In the winter we were searching for egg masses. Right now we are looking for nymphs and adults. They’re a brightly-colored insect as an adult. They have some red tints to them. They’re not good fliers, but we do have cards in the (extension) office to help people identify them,” he said.

Lima added that lantern flies generally prefer Tree of Heaven varieties.

“They seem to be found a lot in orchards and vineyards. They do like trees that have a bitter bark, that flow a lot of sap,” he said.

He said they have also been found in the Cleveland area.

“All insects reproduce exponentially, so when they become an infestation they do a lot of damage. In low numbers not so much damage, but again it’s exponential reproduction, so within a season they can be in numbers that can cause a lot of damage,” he said.

Once the lantern flies are located, insecticides and traps are most often utilized.

“It’s hard to treat an infestation at a county level. It’s just something that, if you do have an orchard or vineyard, spotted lantern fly control is something you have to incorporate into your management now,” he said. “You’re able to manage it, but you’re going to be managing it the entire time, because obviously you can’t treat a county.”

Lima said growers who find signs of lantern flies should call the extension office at 740-695-1455 or the Ohio Department of Agriculture at 614-728-6201.

“The idea is to make sure ODA’s involved, so they can apply proper treatments. So monitoring is the big issue now,” he said.