The spotted lanternfly has established itself in Ohio and continues to spread across the state. First detected in the U.S. in Pennsylvania in 2014, this invasive planthopper from Asia has since moved westward, with Ohio confirming established populations in multiple eastern counties. The Ohio Department of Agriculture actively tracks the pest and maintains quarantine zones to slow its movement.
Where It Has Been Found in Ohio
Spotted lanternfly was first confirmed in Ohio in Jefferson County, along the eastern border with Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Since then, detections have expanded into additional counties, primarily in the eastern and northeastern parts of the state. The Ohio Department of Agriculture maintains a quarantine program for affected counties, which restricts the movement of outdoor items that could carry egg masses, such as firewood, landscaping materials, and outdoor furniture.
The pest spreads primarily through human activity rather than flight. Egg masses are laid on nearly any flat surface, including vehicles, shipping containers, patio furniture, and stone. A single car parked overnight near an infested area can carry egg masses hundreds of miles. This hitchhiking behavior is why quarantine compliance matters and why new detections often pop up along highways and in commercial shipping corridors rather than spreading gradually outward from existing populations.
How to Identify It by Season
Spotted lanternfly looks completely different depending on the time of year, which means many Ohioans see one and don’t realize what it is.
- October through March (egg masses): Females lay small, grayish-brown egg masses covered in a waxy, mud-like coating. Each mass contains 30 to 50 eggs and can be found on tree bark, outdoor furniture, vehicles, rocks, and building surfaces. Fresh masses look smooth and shiny. Older ones crack and take on a dry, flaky appearance.
- April through May (early nymphs): Eggs hatch in spring, producing tiny nymphs about 1/8 inch long. These first three growth stages are black with white spots. They’re small enough to be mistaken for ticks at a glance.
- June (red nymphs): The fourth nymph stage is more distinctive: roughly 1/2 inch long, bright red with white dots and black stripes. This is the stage most people notice for the first time.
- Late June through first frost (adults): Adults are about one inch long with black bodies. Their folded wings appear gray with black spots, but when they open, the hind wings flash a striking red, black, and white pattern. They’re strong jumpers but weak fliers, often hopping away when disturbed.
What It Does to Plants
Spotted lanternfly feeds by piercing plant tissue and sucking out sap. It doesn’t chew leaves, so the damage isn’t immediately obvious. Instead, heavy feeding weakens plants over time, reducing their ability to photosynthesize, store energy, and survive winter. Grapevines are especially vulnerable. In Pennsylvania’s wine country, severe infestations have killed vines outright, and Ohio’s growing wine industry faces the same threat as the pest spreads.
Beyond grapes, spotted lanternfly feeds on more than 70 plant species, including maples, black walnut, birch, willow, and fruit trees like apple and peach. Its preferred host is tree of heaven, an invasive tree from China that is already widespread in Ohio’s disturbed landscapes, roadsides, and urban lots. The lanternfly doesn’t need tree of heaven to survive, but populations tend to concentrate around it, especially during the adult stage when females prefer it for feeding and egg-laying.
A telltale sign of infestation is “honeydew,” a sticky, sugary waste the insects excrete in large quantities. Honeydew coats leaves, sidewalks, and cars beneath infested trees. It also promotes the growth of sooty mold, a black fungus that covers surfaces and further blocks sunlight from reaching leaves. If you notice a tree dripping sticky residue or developing a dark coating on its bark and surrounding ground, spotted lanternfly feeding is a likely cause.
Tree of Heaven: The Connection That Matters
If you want to reduce spotted lanternfly pressure on your property, start by looking for tree of heaven. This fast-growing invasive tree has compound leaves that resemble walnut or sumac, with smooth leaf edges and a distinctive notch at the base of each leaflet. Crushed leaves smell like rancid peanut butter. It sprouts aggressively from stumps and roots, colonizing fence lines, alleys, and any patch of bare ground.
Removing tree of heaven eliminates the lanternfly’s preferred gathering spot. However, simply cutting it down causes it to send up dozens of new sprouts from the root system, making the problem worse. The recommended approach is to treat the tree with a targeted herbicide application to the bark or a cut stump before removal. Your local OSU Extension office can advise on timing and methods specific to your property.
What You Can Do at Home
The most effective action homeowners can take is scraping and destroying egg masses between October and March, before they hatch. Use a credit card, putty knife, or similar flat edge to scrape masses into a bag or container filled with rubbing alcohol or hand sanitizer. Simply scraping them onto the ground isn’t enough, as eggs can still hatch. Check tree trunks, fence posts, stone walls, outdoor equipment, and the undersides of any items stored outside.
During the warmer months, you can kill nymphs and adults on contact by stomping them or using a spray bottle with soapy water. Circle traps wrapped around tree trunks can catch nymphs as they climb, though these should include a mesh guard to prevent birds and other wildlife from getting stuck. For larger infestations on valuable landscape or fruit trees, contact-based insecticidal sprays are available, but targeted application matters to avoid harming pollinators.
Sticky bands, once popular in Pennsylvania, have fallen out of favor because they trap birds, squirrels, and beneficial insects. If you use them, always wrap them with a protective cage of chicken wire.
How to Report a Sighting
The Ohio Department of Agriculture asks residents to report spotted lanternfly sightings, especially in counties where it hasn’t been previously confirmed. Early detection in new areas is critical for quarantine decisions and resource allocation. You can report through the ODA website at agri.ohio.gov, where you’ll be asked to submit a photo and location details. If possible, capture the insect or scrape the egg mass into a sealed container to help confirm identification. Taking a clear photo that shows the insect’s size, color pattern, and the surface where you found it speeds up the verification process considerably.
Reporting matters even if you’re in a county that already has confirmed populations. Density data helps state agencies decide where to focus treatment efforts and track how quickly the pest is spreading within a region.