Invasive spotted lanternfly seen as threat to industries
As safety director for the Delmont-based Kirk Trucking Services, David Domer is responsible for enforcing health and safety protocols, including those added for essential businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. He has been dealing with a different kind of state-enforced quarantine for a lot longer, though — one on spotted lanternflies.
The bug has been attaching itself to company trucks for years, forcing drivers to take time before heading out on a job to crush the long-legged, speckled, grey-and-mauve insect, which unfurls bright red underwings when startled and can grow up to an inch long.
Destroying lanternflies sometimes takes a little elbow grease.
“One gentleman sent me a picture of the rims on his trailer,” Mr. Domer said. “Looking back from a distance, it was so covered [with spotted lanternflies] you couldn’t even see the wheels.”
According to a 2016 Pennsylvania Department of Transportation report, Pennsylvania transporters like Kirk Trucking Services carry a collective total of $1.6 trillion worth of goods annually, or 7.5% of goods
and materials in the entire nation. Top state exports include grapes, apples, peaches and hardwood — all of which the invasive species originating in East Asia loves to feed on, excreting a destructive sap called honeydew in the process.
Besides directly affecting key exports, the insect could indirectly harm related industries too. Experts at Penn State Extension estimate trucking services in forestry and agriculture could lose millions if they’re forced to manage the bug’s presence statewide.
Because of such concerns, thousands of commercial transportation businesses are now subject to the state’s spotted lanternfly transportation quarantine, first imposed on five southeastern counties in late 2014.
The measures apply to commercial transporters traveling through 26 counties where the spotted lanternfly has been sighted, including Allegheny and Beaver counties, although Mr. Domer said he has yet to hear of any sightings reported by the Kirk Trucking drivers out west.
Out east, he said, truckers are more likely to have to smash the bugs or grind egg masses down. Mr. Domer said all truckers must fill out a daily report confirming they checked for the insect.
“[Inspections] require just some extra steps,” he said. “Just a little bit of extra due diligence.”
The lanternfly is notorious for being able to land on and lay eggs on most flat surfaces — including the sides of rail cars and trucks. Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture spokeswoman Shannon Powers called the transportation industry a “key partner” in combating the bug in Pennsylvania. Reported sightings have risen sharply this year.
“[Spotted lanternflies] have jumped across several counties to Allegheny and Beaver, so it’s not a natural spread . ... It’s been hopping around, hitching rides to a new place,” Ms. Powers said.
The first two western counties to spot the pest were added to the lanternfly quarantine in March, around the same time as COVID-19-related shutdowns began.
Tim Stipcak, director of safety for Pitt Ohio, said that because of COVID-19, that Strip District-based transportation company had to step up its sanitation practices, even as it was dealing with some economic hits as partners closed or brokers drove up rates due to virus shutdowns.
At that point, Pitt Ohio had been going after spotted lanternfly hitchhikers for two years.
Mr. Stipcak said the company was made aware of the seriousness of the infestation in 2018 after the state Department of Agriculture did an outreach program targeting businesses in Center Valley in Lehigh County, where the company has a terminal.
“It wasn’t a big problem in the Allentown area yet, but they told us it was coming,” he said.
Pitt Ohio drivers already
performed mandated PennDOT inspections before departing from a site, Mr. Stipcak said, checking that tires, lights and other apparatuses were safely working. Training people to check for the spotted lanternfly didn’t require too much additional work.
The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, in partnership with Penn State Extension, runs an online twohour exam that commercial transportation managers take so they can teach employees how to kill the bug.
Certified employees receive quarantine permits, which may be a sticker, tag or piece of paper. More than 24,000 companies have been issued permits since 2014, covering over 1 million business travelers in the state.
Mr. Stipcak isn’t expecting the lanternfly to have a significant impact on Pitt Ohio’s operations if it spreads further, though he imagines it will hurt companies who primarily move agricultural products. Experts at Penn State Extension conducted a 2019 study that found trucking services in forestry and agriculture could lose up to $5.8 million and $30 million, respectively, if they’re forced to manage the bug’s presence statewide.
Penn State Extension director and study co-author Jayson Harper said the purpose of the report was to open the state and federal governments’ eyes up to how costly dealing with the infestation could become.
“Some of these [measures] seem like small things, like 10 minutes inspecting a log, but you start talking about all the logs moved by the timber hauler when they load the trucks . ... There’s going to be some kind of time cost,” Mr. Harper said.
In a worst-case scenario, losses across industries in Pennsylvania could increase to $554 million annually and cost the state almost 5,000 jobs. Mr. Harper cautioned the estimates made in the Penn State study are “fairly crude,” with much of the best management practice costs based on anecdotal evidence.
But there’s little argument that the insect could have a severe impact on the Pennsylvania economy.
“It hasn’t moved to northwest Pennsylvania yet, where valuable timber species are,” Mr. Harper said. “It also jumped past us [Penn State Extension] in Adams County, where we have a very valuable fruit industry.”
Mr. Harper said that while the arrival of the pandemic earlier this year initially slowed ongoing efforts to combat the spotted lanternfly, Penn State Extension, the state Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Agriculture are all working to inform businesses about quarantine measures.
And the industry is committed to the battle, said Mr. Stipcak.
“There’s a lot of trucking companies we know that are in the same boat,” he said. “They don’t want to transport the thing any more than we do. We want to keep [spotted lanternflies] out east. Hopefully it’s something they can eradicate and get rid of.”
“[Spotted lanternflies] have jumped across several counties to Allegheny and Beaver, so it’s not a natural spread . ... It’s been hopping around, hitching rides to a new place.”
— Shannon Powers, Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture spokeswoman