Bugs are ‘coating US metropolis in damaging poo’ as ‘WW3 for bugs’ wages on
Scientists are concerned about insect poo covering New York City courtesy of the marauding lanternfly.
Since 2020 New York City has been under siege each summer by swarms of lanternflies. These deceptively pretty pests have been driving Big Apple residents up the wall, with authorities urging people to “stomp them out”.
The invasive species are harming plant life across the city by sucking sap from vines and trees at an “alarming rate”. Now scientists are warning “honeydew” – a.k.a. the insects’ poop – is a major cause for concern.
READ MORE: American pest plague could be taken out by ‘Chinese nemesis’ in ‘WW3 for insects’
There’s lots of quality news coming out of the US.
(Image: Getty Images)
When one of the little critters ‘lays a brick’ the brownish spray collects on vehicles, homes and patios. When the excrement lands, it dries and hardens – becoming very difficult to remove. Experts also claim the resulting sooty mould can ruin paint and upholstery.
“If there’s a high population [of spotted lanternflies], you really don’t want to walk under that tree without a hat and maybe a raincoat or an umbrella,” Kelli Hoover, an entomology professor at Penn State University, told Gothamist.
“It can reduce the quality of life if you have a lot of the honeydew that’s dripping down onto your picnic table or your cars,” said Brian Eshenaur, invasive species specialist at Cornell University, speaking to the same publication.
(Image: Getty Images)
Last week experts dropped a bombshell about potentially unleashing the lanternfly’s “arch nemesis”, the Dryinidae wasp from China, in what’s being called “World War Three for insects”.
This insect looks like an ant on steroids with wings and has been bossing lanternflies around in its homeland for yonks. Researchers from the US Department of Agriculture are in the early days of checking if this parasitic wasp could kick lanternflies to the curb in the States.
(Image: TNS)
Science bods are pinning their hopes on this Dryinidae wasp hitman, which offs lanternflies in a rather grisly way. This insect’s modus operandi is to lay its eggs inside a living lanternfly, leading to larvae that munch the host alive from the inside out.
“The wasp is kind of a common natural enemy to the lanternfly,” said Julie Urban, an evolutionary biologist at Penn State University. “With as good of a job as they’re doing, and knowing that this kind of thing is probably a natural control agent … this seems like a reasonable bet to me.”
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