Spotted Lantern Fly & Stink Bugs

Over the past ten years, I’ve been worried by the sudden appearance of stink bugs and, most recently, the “spotted lantern fly.” Both bugs seem to creep into the most unusual places at unexpected times. Other bugs are quickly dispatched by predators and I barely notice them. Both of these bugs are the exception.

I haven’t seen as many stink bugs lately. Based on their sudden presence about ten years ago, I expected them to be everywhere at this point. But, they aren’t, at least in my neighborhood. I see one every now and then. The spotted lantern fly has been showing up increasingly often.

The other day, I saw one and hit it with my pressure washer to get it moving. Surprisingly, even after hitting it will the full force of a four-thousand PSI pressure washer, it was hanging onto the side of the building like a champ.

Am I the only one who feels like we are seeing a lot of bugs from Asia and with all of the technology we have that somehow animals are still coming over from China. We now have invasive catfish (though they aren’t from China), stink bugs, lantern flies, snake heads and the giant killer bee. I don’t hear anything about what China may have received from us. I am curious.

Between the fertilizer shortage, heat, lack of water and now additional bugs that want to eat food, farmers are in trouble. I think we can all agree, we don’t need additional pesticides in our food.