Lower Nazareth considers federal help for lanternflies
Lower Nazareth Township is considering whether to allow the U.S. Department of Agriculture to treat trees on townshipowned property in order to contain the spread of spotted lanternflies.
Township manager Lori Stauffer told the board of supervisors Wednesday that she had a meeting this week with a representative of the USDA who offered treatment of trees with herbicides and pesticides at no cost to the township in order to help keep the invasive insects from spreading further.
She said Louise Bugbee, of USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection, told her the department is targeting the tree of heaven, a deciduous invasive, because the spotted lanternfly is particularly drawn to it.
Township supervisors, however, would first have to grant permission.
“They want the board to authorize treatments,” Stauffer said.
The plan, she said, is to kill the trees with herbicides if they are less than 6 inches in diameter.
Otherwise, she said, workers would inject larger trees with an insecticide that would kill the spotted lanternfly when it feeds on the tree.
Stauffer said the alternative is the township does the job itself, but she didn’t know how much that would cost.
An offer to combat the pests at no cost to the township might seem like a no-brainer, but not so fast, one supervisor said.
Bob Hoyer, owner of Buzas’ Greenhouses and Nursery on Newburg Road, asked what specific herbicides and pesticides would be used, and how the public would be kept away from the treated areas once they are applied.
“If it’s on our property they’ll have to post it and keep people out,” he said. “Because it’s a tree, I would assume it’s a pretty powerful herbicide.”
He also asked about “the long-term effects” of the pesticide treatments.
He said a 12- to 24-hour safety period might be necessary to keep people away from treated plants, depending on which chemicals are used.
The board opted to table its decision until more information is provided.
Stauffer said that the USDA wants to begin spraying next year because of the backlog of townships that it already has lined up for treatment.
It will also ultimately seek permission to target the trees on private property as well, she said, but only after obtaining permission from the landowner.
The invasive spotted lanternfly, native to China, has triggered a quarantine area that now encompasses the Lehigh Valley and a majority of eastern Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania last month authorized $3 million in state funds to supplement that being expended by the USDA, state Department of Agriculture and Penn State Extension to combat the infestation, which poses a severe threat to the fruit and lumber industries.
Kevin Duffy is a freelance writer for The Morning Call.