“I would say for me, the honeydew was always the worst, because it’s raining down on you. It’s just really gross,” Johnson said. “You need to put [clothing] in the laundry and take a shower to get rid of it. You can’t just like wipe it off, because it’s basically sugar water. So it just makes everything sticky and awful.”
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Despite increased awareness and mitigation efforts, Calixto feels that lanternflies are probably here to stay, just like many other invasive species. “As a biologist and entomologist, it’s fascinating to see the early stages of an invasion and spread. But it’s also very disappointing, particularly here in the U.S. We have tools and resources to prevent [this],” he said. “We have a lot of ways to go with [controlling] this insect, and we’re still trying to define the reach and impact in the Northeast.”