Spotted lanternfly swarm about to hit Berks again (PHOTO GALLERY)

They’ll soon hatch from muddy brown eggs stuck to tree trunks, patio furniture, firewood and backyard sheds.

In the weeks ahead they’ll grow into swarms of flying insects that mob Berks County yards, orchards and vineyards, feasting on trees and grape vines.

The spotted lanternfly, the sap-sucking Asian pest that has infiltrated Berks County, again could plague the county this summer. But state and university researchers plan to turn Berks into a laboratory to study the strange intruders and hopefully discover the most effective ways of killing them.

One ambitious plan: Researchers will haul 500 potted pear trees to the Penn State Berks campus this spring, install large tents to house them and study the effectiveness of insecticides on fruit-tree-eating lanternflies.

Another: Researchers will plant 72 grape vines in mesh-covered cages at Manatawny Creek Winery in Amity Township to study the pests’ impact on berry fruit and the cost of treating vineyards with insecticides to battle the bugs.

Research has been conducted since the spotted lanternfly was discovered in District Township in 2014, the first sighting of the pest in the United States. But last summer’s onslaught in eastern Berks, its spread to nearby counties and its threat to the state’s $18 billion grape, tree fruit, hardwood and nursery industries have spurred an even greater sense of urgency, including $17.5 million in emergency funds from the USDA to battle the bug.

“It surprised all of us, and it’s scary, so we need to really have research-based answers, and that research has to be done now,” said Julie Urban, a senior research associate at Penn State, which is leading the Berks studies. “We’re in an all-hands-on-deck moment.”

Fast-growing menace

Since arriving in Berks, the spotted lanternfly, believed by state experts to have been unwittingly brought to the county in a shipment of landscaping stone from South Korea, has spread at a fast rate.

Infestation by the insect has grown from an area of about 174 square miles in 2015 to about 3,000 square miles last September, according to the USDA.

A quarantine imposed by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture to contain the insect grew from eight eastern Berks municipalities in 2014 to 13 eastern counties in 2017, including Schuylkill, Montgomery, Lehigh, Lancaster, Chester and Philadelphia.

Adult spotted lanternflies and egg masses were discovered at a stone yard in Winchester County, Va., in January, according to the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. The insects have yet to turn up in neighboring counties, said Elaine Lidholm, a department spokeswoman.

At Penn State Berks, the pear trees likely will be placed in a field surrounded by fence at the Peiffer Farm, across Broadcasting Road from the main campus in Spring Township. Details could be worked out next week, Urban said.

Other research projects are planned at Beekman Orchards, Pike Township; a residential property in Hereford Township; and other property in Berks that has yet to be chosen, Urban said. Among the goals: to discover the effects of insecticides on spotted lanternflies that feast on ornamental trees, and the insecticides’ effects on the pests’ eggs.

The projects, to be funded by the state Agriculture Department and Penn State, are to begin as soon as possible.

“There’s so much we don’t know about the biology of these things,” said Urban. “It’s trying to get a lot of stuff done in a short period of time.”

Eggs about to hatch

Warm weather could hasten the hatching of eggs this month, entomologists say. Young spotted lanternflies emerge from eggs as tiny black nymphs with white spots, the first of four stages of their youth, and eat soft leaf parts. They can climb to the tops of trees to feast, said Emelie Swackhamer, a horticulture educator with the Penn State Extension office in Montgomery County.

Homeowners still can scrape egg masses off trees and kill them by dropping them into plastic bags and either trash, burn or submerge them in hand sanitizer or alcohol, according to information from the Penn State Extension office.

While baby and adult spotted lanternflies seem to succumb easily to a variety of insecticides, including “softer,” environmentally friendly ones, those containing Dinotefuran seem to be particularly effective, said Swackhamer, who conducted field trials of various retail products on trees at her Berks home. Consumers should follow the instructions on the label.

The state Agriculture Department has promoted a tree-banding program for the tree of heaven, the tree that the insects seem to prefer, for years as a way to kill young nymphs and keep track of the numbers eradicated. Makeshift tree bands, made from flypaper and duct tape, also have worked, but homeowners should be careful; if bands are too sticky, they could snag small birds or other desirable creatures, said Swackhamer.

Don’t have chemicals or tape? A simple swatting could do the trick, experts said. The government web site for Washington Township, where spotted lanternflies were plentiful last summer, makes this plea: “Once the insects hatch please feel free to crush or swat as many as you can.”

For Cathy Wegener, director of Berks County’s Parks and Recreation Department, the pests were a problem last summer, but the fight became real when she and her husband found eggs hidden on the inside whitewall of a tire on their boat trailer at their Fleetwood home. They’ve now enlisted in the Agriculture Department’s tree-banding program.

“They were everywhere,” said Wegener. “The flyswatter gave out.”