Birders! Graduate Student Needs Your Help In Reporting Birds Eating Spotted Lanternflies

Anne, a graduate student at Penn State, is studying predation of the invasive spotted lanternfly by birds.

The spotted lanternfly is an invasive insect that, if not contained, could cause at least $324 million in annual economic loss to agriculture and forests in Pennsylvania.  Read more here.

So far, spotted lanternflies have been identified in Allegheny, Beaver, Berks, Blair, Bucks, Carbon, Chester, Columbia, Cumberland, Delaware, Huntingdon, Juniata, Lancaster, Lebanon, Lehigh, Luzerne, Mifflin, Monroe, Montgomery, Northampton, Northumberland, Perry, Philadelphia, Schuylkill and York counties which are under quarantine restrictions.

Birders, you can help provide information about how birds could reduce the spread of this pest by posting observations of birds feeding on and interacting with spotted lanternfly.

Sightings of birds preying on spotted lanternflies should be reported to the Birds Biting Bad Bugs Facebook page.

Reports should be as detailed as possible, including:

-- Common name of the bird

-- Date and location of the observation

-- Any behaviors you noticed by the bird

-- Pictures of the encounter

In particular, the study is interested in whether the bird attempted to eat the insect, dropped it, or finished eating it. Did the bird spit out the wings, but eat the rest?

Reports also may be emailed to birdsbitingbadbugs@gmail.com. 

For more information, visit the Birds Biting Bad Bugs Facebook page.  Click Here to learn more about the spotted lanternfly.

(Reprinted from the Sept. 2 DCNR Resource newsletter.  Click Here to sign up for your own copy.)

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[Posted: Sept. 2, 2020]  PA Environment Digest