Here in Pittsburgh, spotted lanternflies have reached instar 4. Obs from battling them:

Spraying w/ dish soap in hot water kills them w/i a minute. Sudsier spray works better.

They 💖 grape vines, roses, tree of heaven, & forsythia. They're often found in the same spot & not all over the plant.

They cluster on lower of stems/stalks, or hang under leaves.

They scurry to the back of anything once you've alerted them but will soon mosey back if you're still. Zap 'em again!

#SpottedLanternflies

Saw some early nymph stage #SpottedLanternFlies while doing yard work yesterday and today. Not many, about only 2-3, but enough to encourage me to keep working on my forsythia bushes. Oddly enough, it’s where I saw the most of these bugs two or three years ago, whenever that year that we were overrun by them in the Philly area.

‘Kill it, smash it’: spotted lanternflies due to return this spring with a vengeance

Experts ask the public to be on the lookout for the invasive species and kill them and their brood to protect US plant life

#SpottedLanternflies #Insects

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/apr/23/spotted-lanternflies-spring-hatch

A thankfully nice outcome from a terrible racist action. Very glad that phone call didn't lead to something bad and this girl now gets celebrated for the time she spent doing the right thing for nature & the environment. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/02/nyregion/bobbi-wilson-lanternfly-yale.html

#lanternfly #bobbiwilson #nature #SpottedLanternflies #racialprofiling #newjersey #BlackGirlMagic

When is random flailing not random flailing? When you're doing some sneaky "inertial morphing" with your legs to flip over.

Our new paper just posted to #bioRxiv uses 3D digital modeling and experiments on #SpottedLanternflies to understand how they self-right when they land on their backs. (Hint: It has a lot to do with body shape!) #newpaper

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.06.527347v1

Are you dreading the invasion of the #SpottedLanternflies or already deep in battle with them? Knowing which instar you're dealing with can help with figuring out how to eradicate them!

Check out our #newpaper just out in #plosOne reporting on size clustering to distinguish among those first three otherwise identical black and white instars.

Getting ready for their spring emergence...!

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0265707

Yale honors Black girl, nine, wrongly reported to police over insect project

#Yale #SpottedLanternflies #Insects #Science #Education

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jan/31/yale-honors-9-year-old-girl-wrongly-reported-police

"The Yale School of Public Health … held a ceremony citing Bobbi Wilson’s efforts to rid Caldwell, New Jersey, of the spotted lanternfly …

"An assistant professor at the public health school, Ijeoma Opara, told those at the ceremony that she organized the event to bring attention to Bobbi’s “bravery and how inspiring she is”."

A neighbour called police on 22 October 2022 when 9-year-old Bobbi, who is Black, was spraying invasive spotted lanternflies harming trees near her home, sparking national discussion about the dangers of racial profiling.

#BobbiWilson #SpottedLanternflies #NewJersey
#Yale #IjeomaOpara
#RacialProfiling

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jan/31/yale-honors-9-year-old-girl-wrongly-reported-police

Hi! I am an associate professor at #templeuniversity in #philadelphia studying how #lizards and other beasties (including #spiders and #SpottedLanternflies) move, fall, trip, and otherwise get around. I currently spend a lot of time getting my mind blown by #GranularPhysics because why, really, is running on #sand so hard? Interests: #biomechanics, #biomimetics, #bioinspiration, #robotics, #CuteAnimals, among other things! #introduction