Experts at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven say people in the state no longer need to report when they’ve found a spotted lanternfly.
Associate scientist Dr. Gale Ridge says reporting has become obsolete and people should just kill them.
“They’re in all the counites in Connecticut at this point,” said Ridge. “They’re running along the interstate corridors.”
The insect, which is considered an invasive species, comes from China, and often travels through commerce.
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William Jimenez Jr. is a truck driver from New Jersey who stopped in Milford. He says he sees them often.
“They’re all over,” said Jimenez Jr. “They climb on your truck. They come on the tires. They get on the merchandise.”
Spotted lanternflies eat at plants and trees. The state says nearly 47% of forest trees in Connecticut are vulnerable. They also say they bugs feed on grape plants, apple, cherry and peach trees.
“A few jumped bumped into me as they were flying,” said David Vernooy who was walking at Silver Sands State Park in Milford with his wife Nancy Vernooy. “I knocked them to the ground and gave them a little step on squish.”
Vernooy did exactly what experts are telling the public to do; kill them.
“To me they’re actually pretty, so you almost feel bad squishing them,” he said. “But I know they do a lot of damage.”
