Scrape and destroy the gray egg masses from fall through spring, and squash nymphs and adults on sight. If you have tree-of-heaven on your property, remove it or treat it.
Yes, spotted lanternflies are that bad. Rarely does a pest have a public stomp-on-sight endorsement from state agriculture officials like the spotted lanternfly. Infestations have been reported in Connecticut and their range is only expanding. But that’s not to say that a Hartford-area yard with lanternflies is a lost cause. There are things you can do.
First, the most important thing you can do is remove egg masses. They look like gray putty or dried mud and are about an inch long. Each holds 30–50 eggs and you can find them on anything smooth: tree trunks, fence posts, stone walls, patio furniture, firewood, and wheel wells. Scrape each mass into a container with rubbing alcohol or hand sanitizer. Each destroyed mass is a few dozen spotted lanternflies that never hatch.
From late spring on, you may see small black nymphs with white spots, then red-patched older nymphs, then the gray-winged, red-underwinged adults of late summer. Squash any you find. For heavier traffic around trees, you can always use circle traps to funnel climbing insects into a collection chamber. Skip open sticky bands—these tend to catch birds and beneficial insects along with pests.
Lanternflies feed on dozens of plants, grapevines, maples, black walnut among them, but their darling is tree-of-heaven, an invasive that often grows unnoticed along fence lines and driveways. Removing it, or having remaining trees professionally treated so they act against the insects feeding there, strikes at the population's home base.
If you have a serious lanternfly problem, scraping and stomping can only go so far. Professional treatment of trees and surfaces is what works instead. And whatever you find, report it to the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. They’re mapping the spread and guiding the state’s response.
If the gray egg smears are showing up on your fence posts, Mosquito Squad of Hartford can help. Mosquito Squad treats for spotted lanternflies alongside its core pest services, helping protect your trees and outdoor spaces as this invader spreads through Connecticut.
