10-year-old Shaler student stops spotted lanternfly in its tracks

Ten-year-old Ludi Aguera didn’t realize the significance of the bug she squashed at the Shaler Area Elementary School track – she just thought it was a cool-looking moth.

“I had no idea what it was,” said Ludi, who stumbled across a spotted lanternfly — an invasive insect with the potential to cause up to $324 million in damage to crops each year.

The fifth-grader stepped on the bug and was simply struck by its unique color and pattern, she said.

Her mom, Laura, was able to identify it, preserve it in a plastic bag and report it to the state Department of Agriculture’s hotline.

It was the exact right thing to do, to stop the pest in its track, according to Heather Leach, an extension associate with Penn State’s Department of Entomology.

“Killing and reporting every (spotted lantern fly) you see is so important for us to know where the population exists and where to target management strategies,” Leach said.

The invasive insect from Southeast Asia first hit Pennsylvania in 2014. It oozes sticky droppings onto trees and cars and looks like a mix of a ladybug and a moth, with a bright red core and dotted beige wings.

As of August, reports of the spotted lanternfly were up 147% statewide.

Cases were confirmed locally in Swissvale, Avalon and some Pittsburgh neighborhoods.

Statewide, from Jan. 1 through July 31, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture received 41,329 reports from the public of spotted lanternflies, which had accelerated quickly from the same time period last year when the agency received 16,747 reports.

Residents who find a spotted lanternfly should identify, document, kill and save the insect, Leach said.

While Ludi wasn’t aware of the bug’s potential impact, she is learning about citizen science stewardship in school at Shaler Area Elementary.

Her English Language Arts class just finished reading “The Night of the Spadefoot Toads,” in which a child saves the local habitat for an endangered species.

Ludi said she was excited to help her local environment, just like the character in the book.

“The spotted lanternfly is not endangered – I wish it was,” Ludi said. “We had to kill it because it’s invasive.”

Shaler Area Teacher Annie Bozzo is proud that Ludi took the initiative to apply her classwork to the larger outside world.

“I am always encouraging students to apply the concepts I teach to their lives outside the walls of the classroom, and that’s exactly what Ludi did,” Bozzo said.

The Agueras reported the finding to the state Department of Agriculture’s hotline, 1-888-4BADFLY, which was crucial to track the bug’s local invasion route.

“We’re very fortunate to have so much community support on our side,” Leach said. “This is a great example of how we can band together to help prevent an ecologically and economically devastating invasive pest.”

For more on the spotted lanternfly, visit Penn State’s website.