Although it is currently contained in 13 counties in southeastern Pennsylvania, the spotted lanternfly has shown an affinity for increasing its population since it was initially discovered in 2014. This pest’s skills include hitchhiking, camouflage and survival in a Midwestern climate. If we’re not careful, the spotted lanternfly won’t just be Pennsylvania’s problem.
Incidentally, its egg masses play a critical role in the species’ survival and advancement. From September to June, identifying and destroying spotted lanternfly egg masses is crucial to stopping the spread of the invasive pest.
Spotted lanternfly egg masses
Spotted lanternfly egg masses are extremely versatile. Not only can they attach to almost any surface, but they can also blend in on almost any surface. This makes them easy to transport and hard to identify. If you heat your home with wood, you should be especially cautious purchasing wood this winter, as it’s one of the easiest ways to unintentionally spread the spotted lanternfly.
What can they attach to?
Spotted lanternfly egg masses can be found on virtually any outdoor surface. The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture recommends checking the following surfaces for egg masses before moving them from a quarantined area:
Recreational or Camping Items
- Backpacks
- Basketball backboards
- Bicycles
- Boats/Boat trailers
- Campers
- Ice chests
- Motorcycles
- Motorhomes
- Recreational vehicles
- Snowmobiles
- Tarps
- Tents
Outdoor Household Items
- Barrels
- Cardboard or wooden boxes
- Outdoor poles
- Plant containers
- Firewood
- Propane or oil tanks
- Trash cans
- Refrigerators/Freezers
- Storage sheds
- Shutters
- Storm/Screen doors and windows
- Window awnings
- Outdoor furniture
Building Materials
- Bricks/Cinder blocks
- Cement mixing tubs
- Lumber
- Roofing materials
- Tools and toolboxes
- Workbenches
- Skidsters/Forklifts
- Pipes
Yard and Garden Items
- Dog houses, rabbit sheds, chicken coops, etc
- Barbecue grills
- Carts
- Cold frames
- Fencing
- Garden tillers
- Yard decorations
- Garden tools
- Backhoes
- Lawnmowers
- Signs and posts
- Storage sheds
- Tractors and trailers
- Trees, shrubs and plants
Children’s Playthings
- Playhouses
- Kiddie pools
- Bicycles, scooters
- Sandboxes
- Swingsets
- Trampolines
In addition to these outdoor items, you should ALWAYS check your vehicle when moving from inside a quarantined zone to outside its bounds, egg masses can hide underneath your car or in your wheel well. Regularly check from late fall to early spring.
Identifying spotted lanternfly egg masses
Spotted lanternfly egg masses look like unevenly-spread mortar smeared on almost any outdoor surface. The egg masses contain 30-50 eggs and are protected with a mud-like covering, giving them their grey color and cracked-mortar appearance. These eggs masses can be found and destroyed from late September to June.
Removing and destroying egg masses
Once you’ve identified a spotted lanternfly egg mass, follow these steps to destroy it:
- Get a plastic card or putty knife to scrape egg masses off of the surface completely.
- Scrape egg masses into a bag or container filled with rubbing alcohol or hand sanitizer. You may also smash or bun the egg masses once they’ve been removed, but rubbing alcohol and hand sanitizer have been the most effective for destroying them.
Related Content
- How to stop the spread of the spotted lanternfly
- Spotted lanternfly expert provides home management tips
- Can you ID spotted lanternfly?
Resources
STAY INFORMED. SIGN UP!
Up-to-date agriculture news in your inbox!
Thanks for this post. Informative. But the picture of the egg mass could use some sort of scale marker – say a dime or quarter stuck aside the egg mass. Don’t know if I’m looking at 1/2 inch size or 4 inches.
Thanks
Hi Michael. the egg masses I’ve seen are around 2 or 3 inches in length
What is the best method to destroying the egg masses if they are out of reach? Would spraying them with rubbing alcohol work?
Hi,
Will the eggs survive the winter if they are not covered by the mud-like covering? Also, do we need to be concerned about the eggs that are carried by the females if we crush/step on them? Do those survive as well?
What is the survival rate of eggs that fall onto the ground? Many of these masses are up way too high to ensure that they get into a container of alcohol. I am standing on a ladder scraping with a yardstick for some of these and just hoping I have crushed them enough or that ones that fall on the ground will be destroyed by lawnmowing or winter. I have wondered about spraying with rubbing alcohol, too. If that works then a supersoaker squirtgun might make an effective egg eradicator.
These are all questions we have had scraping them in a N DE community! Wondering what the survival rate is of those that fly out in the air and presumably are in the ground all winter (in leaf litter, English ivy, etc). We got a big pole with an extension to scrape some up in trees (and can’t even see way high up, are definately missing some up high). Even trying to scrape some in a bag that are lower, many eggs fly out. We tried putting aluminum foil around a tree we are scraping, and then folding and closing up the foil (with a drop of hand sanitizer) and trashing.
I noticed they climbed up the tree in October while we were raking leaves . We used the back of our rakes to crush them. They fell into our leaf piles and started to climb again. So next year we thought we will put something sticky on the base of the trees to catch them before they go way up out of our reach
they feed from tree’s and drop honey dew aka poop or pee and killing any fruit that grows from trees
Will washing them off with a pressure washer kill them?
I’m going to try suranwrap covered with bearing grease around the tree trunk.
IMG_6187.HEIC
Are these Latern flies eggs? If not what is it?
Has anyone determined if one can soak the egg mass with gasoline or alcohol to kill the eggs? I just took down a large branch to discover many masses, and would rather find another way than scraping all of them.
A short video showing how to remove the SLF egg mass:
https://youtu.be/Nwe-2ocs0tk
Awesome video! Thanks for sharing!