In Defense of Nature

 Panic and Pesticides: Response of Government and Environmental Groups to Arrival of Spotted Lanternfly

The Spotted Lanternfly is a strong jumper but a weak flyer. It therefore prefers to walk to get to where it’s going, as this insect was doing at a gas station in Pennsylvania in October 2021.

ALL TEXT AND PHOTOS © Marlene A. Condon

 

With the arrival in 2012 of the Spotted Lanternfly (a planthopper from Asia), government and environmental entities entered panic mode and began pushing everyone to get rid of the so-called invasive Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus altissima). The justification given for this action is that “Tree of Heaven is the preferred host of Spotted Lanternfly.”

 

https://nysipm.cornell.edu/environment/invasive-species-exotic-pests/spotted-lanternfly/spotted-lanternfly-ipm/hosts/

 

However, that statement is not quite true. According to a September 2021 article in Entomology Today, the Spotted Lanternfly (Lycorma delicatula), known for relying on the Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus altissima) “to fuel its rapid spread through the eastern United States, uses a wider-than-assumed range of host plants during its lifecycle”, as reported in Environmental Entomology.

https://academic.oup.com/ee/article/49/5/999/5892805

 

The writer tells us the two researchers of this study “found that 60 percent of plant types adult lanternflies used for feeding were also egg deposit sites.” And, "As the spotted lanternfly continues to increase its North American range, it will continue to encounter new host plants.”

 

https://entomologytoday.org/2020/09/10/list-known-host-plants-grows-invasive-spotted-lanternfly/

 

Therefore, getting people to destroy Tree of Heaven will simply send Spotted Lanternflies to lay eggs on a large variety of plant species we would probably prefer they not impact. In other words, government and environmental groups of every sort now need to employ critical thinking instead of sticking to the original knee-jerk reaction to destroy Ailanthus trees.

 

Unfortunately, due to the emotion that surrounds the entire “invasive-plant” issue, it’s likely that these insects will continue to be employed as an excuse to pressure people into wiping out a supposedly invasive plant.

(Please see, "The Plant Police Are Coming for You", In Defense of Nature, May 2021)

But consideration must be given to the negative environmental impacts of people using poisons to get rid of Tree of Heaven.

 

According to a web page of the Piedmont Master Gardeners of Charlottesville, VA (a group affiliated with the Virginia Cooperative Extension Service), the “Blue Ridge PRISM (Partnership for Invasive Species Management) warns that simply cutting Tree of Heaven to the ground is not enough to eradicate plants. The freshly cut stump must be treated with an herbicide...”

https://piedmontmastergardeners.org/now-is-the-time-to-tackle-tree-of-heaven/

Can you imagine the quantity of herbicides added to our environment if folks took seriously the mandate to get rid of all Ailanthus trees, a species that has become part and parcel of our natural world after more than two centuries here? In a direct rebuke of the icon of the environmental movement, Rachel Carson—who warned us about chemical use in her book Silent Spring—a majority of environmentalists have now bought into the idea that pesticides are virtually harmless. But they couldn’t be more wrong.

 

Studies are showing that microorganisms living within soil, where they perform vital roles in maintaining plant growth and health, can be negatively affected by herbicides. A “number of herbicides have an impact on soil microorganisms...especially on mycorrhiza [fungi that have a symbiotic relationship with the roots of many plants], bacteria and actinomycetes [a type of anerobic bacterium that shares a number of characteristics with fungi]”. Additionally, a “number of herbicides showed reduced population of these soil microorganisms with transient inhibition up to 7–10 days.”

 

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/345140580_Impact_of_Herbicide_Use_on_Soil_Microorganisms

 

Why people who profess to care about the environment would think plants, such as Ailanthus, pose more of a problem for our world than dousing the land with deadly chemicals is not something I can comprehend. After all, Ailanthus does serve wildlife (some species of birds and Gray Squirrels eat the seeds) and they grow in disturbed areas where conditions do not suit most native plants, thus providing habitat where there might otherwise be bare ground.

 

I also can’t understand why government and environmental entities panic every time a new insect species shows up here from elsewhere. We’ve been through this scenario repeatedly, yet we never learn that Mother Nature, given time, will eventually knock down the number of alien insects to a level we can—indeed, must—live with, by the far superior method of non-toxic predation.

 

Patience is a virtue, especially when considering the use of pesticides in a vain effort to eradicate a new six-legged visitor. But rather than wait, we spray the heck out of our environment in a panicked effort to reduce the numbers of these animals, killing all manner of unintended victims along with them (the collateral damage we can no longer afford because insect numbers are way down).

 

Just because we’ve invented pesticides does not mean we must use them, especially as they have never successfully eradicated nonnative insects. We still have Japanese Beetles, Gypsy Moths, Asian Ladybugs, Brown Marmorated Stinkbugs, Emerald Ash Borer...and we will continue to have the Spotted Lanternfly, no matter how much pesticide is brought to bear upon this situation.

 

Please, people, wake up to reality. Humans bring these unwanted insects to the United States, but humans can do nothing to get rid of them. This job is best left to the expert: Mother Nature.

  

NATURE ADVICE:

  

Please ignore the doomsayers and leave Ailanthus trees alone, unless you have a better reason than the Spotted Lanternfly for removing them.

 

Trees—including Ailanthus—provide perching sites for birds and a get-away for climbing animals trying to escape predators on the ground. In addition to Gray Squirrels, which I’ve personally observed feeding upon Tree of Heaven seeds, the Pine Grosbeak and White-winged Crossbill have been reported to feed on these seeds as well. And White-tailed Deer sometimes eat newer leaves.

 

www.illinoiswildflowers.info/trees/plants/tree_heaven.html