How to Get Rid of Spotted Lanternfly

What spotted lanternfly does to your garden

Spotted lanternfly (SLF) feeds on plant sap and excretes a sticky waste called honeydew. The honeydew promotes sooty mold growth, weakens host plants, and attracts stinging insects. Heavy infestations kill grapevines and young trees within 2–3 seasons.

Lycorma delicatula arrived in Pennsylvania in 2014, likely as eggs on a stone shipment from Asia. It has since spread to 17 US states. Unlike many garden pests, SLF does not primarily eat leaves or roots — it uses piercing mouthparts to extract phloem sap directly from plant tissue, depleting the plant’s nutrients and leaving behind sticky honeydew that blankets leaves, outdoor furniture, and everything beneath the tree.

The primary host is tree-of-heaven (Ailanthus altissima), an invasive tree species common across the eastern US. But SLF feeds on 70+ additional species, including grapevines, hops, apples, peaches, cherries, oaks, walnuts, maples, and ornamental plants. Japanese maple trees are a common ornamental target.

Read the companion spotted lanternfly identification guide first if you’re not sure what you’re seeing. This guide covers control.

Control method 1: Circle traps (no chemicals)

Circle traps are the most effective, lowest-effort control for homeowners with host trees. They work by catching SLF as they climb tree trunks.

How circle traps work: SLF nymphs and adults aggregate on tree trunks and climb upward to feed on the canopy. A circle trap wraps around the trunk and funnels climbing insects into a collection bag or sticky material at the top. No bait is needed.

The USDA-Penn State modified circle trap: Penn State Extension offers free plans for a modified circle trap using a funnel and a collection bag filled with water or hand sanitizer. This design avoids the bycatch problem of standard sticky bands (which trap birds, beneficial insects, and small animals). Download the free plans from Penn State Extension’s SLF resources page.

Setup:

1. Wrap a section of window screen material around the trunk, covering 12–18 inches of trunk from ground level upward
2. Tape the bottom edge tight to the bark so insects cannot crawl under
3. Attach a funnel pointing inward at the top, leading to a sealed collection bag
4. Check and empty the bag weekly

Best trees to trap: tree-of-heaven, black walnut, red maple, silver maple, white oak, and grapevine trellises.

Control method 2: Egg mass removal

SLF egg masses are laid from September through November and remain viable through winter until April. Each mass contains 30–50 eggs arranged in rows and covered with a waxy gray coating that resembles a smear of dry mud.

Where to find them:

• Tree trunks and branches
• Fence posts and rails
• Outdoor furniture, vehicles, and lawn equipment
• Smooth stone surfaces
• Stacked firewood

How to remove: Use a stiff card (old credit card works well), metal putty knife, or stiff brush to scrape the mass into a zip-lock bag containing rubbing alcohol or hand sanitizer. Seal the bag immediately and dispose in outdoor trash. Do not drop egg masses on the ground — they survive.

Eggs found on flat surfaces can be crushed directly in place with a hard object.

For lantern fly eggs on tree bark: scrape into alcohol bags. Crushing in place also works, but only if you’re confident you’ve burst all the egg cells — the waxy coating protects intact eggs.

Timing: do egg searches in October, November, and again in March before hatch (hatch typically begins in May in most infested states).

Control method 3: Hand removal and squishing

Simple but effective at small scale. Adult SLF are slow during cool mornings. Approach slowly and knock them into a container of soapy water or squish directly. Nymphs (small black-and-white spotted juveniles in spring, red-and-black in late summer) are slower and easier to catch.

At high population densities, squishing is not a practical primary strategy — it becomes supplemental to trapping or insecticide use.

Control method 4: Insecticides

Organic options

Neem oil: Apply at 2% concentration (2 tablespoons per quart of water plus a few drops of dish soap as an emulsifier) directly to SLF. Effective on nymphs and adults on contact. Not residual — needs reapplication every 7–14 days. Apply at dusk to protect bees.

Spinosad: Derived from naturally occurring soil bacteria. Kills SLF by ingestion and contact. Less effective as a contact spray than neem oil, but provides some residual activity. Also toxic to bees when wet — apply at dusk only.

Insecticidal soap: 2 tablespoons of concentrated insecticidal soap per quart of water. Kills on contact by dissolving the insect’s cuticle. No residual effect. Must hit the insect directly.

Conventional options

Systemic insecticides (dinotefuran) applied to tree bark as a soil drench or bark spray are absorbed into plant tissue and kill SLF feeding on that plant for 30–60 days. This is the highest-efficacy approach for protecting valuable specimen trees. Do not use systemic insecticides on plants that are currently flowering or are primary food sources for pollinators.

What NOT to use

Sticky bands alone are not recommended as a primary control. They capture non-target animals including birds and beneficial insects at unacceptable rates. If you use sticky bands, cover with wire mesh that excludes birds but allows SLF through. Better: use the Penn State circle trap design instead.

Control method 5: Remove tree-of-heaven

Tree-of-heaven (Ailanthus altissima) is the primary preferred host of SLF and also an invasive plant species. Removing it from your property eliminates the most attractive feeding and breeding site, and it helps the broader ecosystem.

Tree-of-heaven identification:

• Compound leaves with 11–41 leaflets
• Distinctive rancid smell when leaves or bark are crushed
• Smooth gray bark with pale vertical streaks
• Common along roadsides, fence lines, and disturbed edges

Removal method: cut the trunk to a stump and immediately apply a concentrated glyphosate or triclopyr herbicide (35% concentration) to the fresh-cut surface. Do this within 5 minutes of cutting. Repeated stump sprouts are common — treat each sprout as it emerges.

Do not cut without treating — unstump-treated tree-of-heaven resprouts aggressively and produces even more root suckers.

Protecting specific plants

Grapevines

Grapevines are one of the plants most severely damaged by SLF. Infested vines can produce significantly reduced yields within one season and die within 2–3 seasons in heavy infestations.

Best approach: circle traps on trellis posts, plus neem oil or spinosad sprays during nymph season (May–July). For commercial-scale vineyards, Pennsylvania’s integrated SLF management guidelines from Penn State Extension are the definitive resource.

Fruit trees

Apples, peaches, plums, and cherries are all fed on by SLF. Circle traps on trunks, combined with a systemic bark spray of dinotefuran in spring, protect individual trees with minimal chemical exposure.

Honeysuckle and ornamental shrubs

SLF feeds on honeysuckle but it is not typically a primary host. Monitor for honeydew accumulation on leaves (sticky, shiny coating) and sooty mold (black dusty coating) as signs of feeding. Treat with neem oil spray if populations are high.

Vegetable gardens

SLF generally does not feed on annual vegetable crops. It prefers woody-stemmed plants. A vegetable garden adjacent to an infested tree may have SLF adults resting on it, but they are not feeding on vegetable crops. Control on nearby trees reduces nuisance in the vegetable garden.

Reporting new sightings

If you are outside the known infestation zone (check your state agriculture department for current maps), reporting sightings is critical. The USDA is working to limit spread beyond the current 17-state zone through quarantine enforcement and monitoring.

Report sightings to:

• Your state Department of Agriculture (most have online reporting forms)
• The USDA APHIS Plant Protection and Quarantine program
• iNaturalist or the dedicated SLF reporting app in states with active programs

Photograph the insect (or egg mass) before removing it if possible. Include the location. Reports help track spread and trigger early-response control programs.

Seasonal timing

SLF has one generation per year. Disrupting any one life stage — egg, nymph, or adult — reduces next year’s population. The most impactful time to act is egg mass removal in fall and nymph treatment in May–June, before adults develop and begin to disperse.