Home - Garden
Keep Spotted Lanternflies Out Of Your Garden With These Two Ingredients
By JAHAIRA ARTHUR
Spotted lanternflies (SLF) are an invasive species that threaten native agriculture due to a lack of natural predators. Use dish soap or vinegar to help combat this problem.
SLF feed on plants throughout their life cycle, harming trees such as maple, birch, pine, and others. In the process, they excrete honeydew, which encourages black mold growth.
A mixture of equal parts dish soap and water creates an effective DIY spray to eliminate SLF. The dish detergent kills them on contact; its sticky viscosity drowns the insects.
Undiluted vinegar can repel bugs naturally and works to eliminate the flies in their young and adult stages. Vinegar is deadly to foliage, so avoid spraying it on plants or trees.
Stopping these pests before they hatch is the best way to halt their invasion. From late summer to early winter, SLF lay brown or yellow eggs on tree trunks in masses of 30 to 50.
The dish soap-water mixture can be used on the masses. Spray it directly onto the cluster before using a credit card to scrape the eggs into a bag and discard them in the trash.