Good Growing

Chris Enroth: 00:06

Welcome to the Good Growing podcast. I am Chris Enroth, horticulture educator with University of Illinois Extension coming at you from Macomb, Illinois, and we have got a great show for you today. We're gonna be talking all about a new found insect species here in Illinois, the spotted winged lanternfly. Sounds like an interesting insect. We're gonna talk with Doctor.

Chris Enroth: 00:29

Kacie Athey all about is this a good, bad bug? What to expect? There's a lot we probably need to unpack here. So but before we get to Kacie, I am joined as always every single week by horticulture educator Ken Johnson in Jacksonville. Hey, Ken.

Ken Johnson: 00:45

Hello, Chris. How are you?

Chris Enroth: 00:47

I am fantastically, doing fine. Just okay. So how about yourself, Ken? Are you excited that we are talking about insects this week? We're getting off all those boring plant topics.

Ken Johnson: 01:00

I am. It's it's been too long.

Chris Enroth: 01:02

It's been Ken, he's just been behind the camera here just like, why do we have to talk about plants? I'd rather talk about bugs. So this one's for you, Ken.

Ken Johnson: 01:14

So we got bugs. That's cool outside. Life is good.

Chris Enroth: 01:19

Life is good. That's right. Ken is sipping his apple cider, foregoing the pumpkin spice. This is this is the way. So Ken, I know you've kind of been on sort of the, what would we say like the frontline of answering a lot of the Spotted Wing Drosophila questions since on our team throughout the state, at least on the horticulture team, you're sort of known as the bug guy.

Chris Enroth: 01:44

So whenever I get these these insect questions, a lot of times I at least include you if not altogether, send them to you and abandon them as soon as possible. So, have you been seeing a lot of, kind of communication? A lot of questions come in? Has been busy for you?

Ken Johnson: 02:03

Not not too bad. Yeah. And spotted lanternfly, not Drosophila. That's another I say? I said Oh my gosh.

Ken Johnson: 02:11

That's another pest.

Chris Enroth: 02:14

That's a that's that was, like, 2014 when that first showed up. So spotted winged lanternfly. No. Drosophila.

Ken Johnson: 02:21

No winged. Just spotted lanternfly.

Chris Enroth: 02:23

Help me, Ken. Ken, take over. What are we talking about today?

Ken Johnson: 02:28

So spotted lanternfly. So I haven't had a whole lot of questions, you know, an interview here or there, but nothing too major yet. I'm wondering, I think maybe in the spring, you might see more about it, especially if they're depending on how widespread they are once they start showing up in in larger numbers. It's probably a little bit of the calm before the storm. But we'll see maybe we'll get lucky and it'll be like the was it the hornet that showed up in Georgia this year?

Ken Johnson: 02:59

You know, we thought it was gonna be murder hornets two point o and never, nothing ever seemed to come of that, at least yet.

Chris Enroth: 03:06

Nobody's gonna make a beer out of this yellow legged hornet, right? There's a murder hornet beer if anyone's curious. I promise I did my homework for this session that actually know what I'm talking about. The spotted lanternfly, spotted wing drosophila, yes, totally different. It's a fruit fly.

Chris Enroth: 03:24

So, and so somewhat, let's bring on our special guest so that I can be further chastised, for totally saying the wrong insect at the top of the show. So we have Doctor. Kacie Athey, on campus at, U of I, in Champaign Urbana. Doctor. Athey, Kacie welcome to the show.

Kacie Athey: 03:45

Thank you for having me. Glad to be here.

Chris Enroth: 03:48

Well, apparently I am just tongue tied all the way around today. I just cannot contain myself. Maybe I'm also really excited to talk about insects. I'm not sure. But Kacie, you've been on the show before, and you actually talked about spiders before.

Chris Enroth: 04:05

That was a really fun podcast, and we'll put a link to that one below because it is spooky season right now. And so we always like to talk about spooky things here in October. But, I I guess we should probably dive into our line of questions. So Ken, would you mind getting us started, please?

Ken Johnson: 04:25

Sure. So and when this first showed up, what was it? 2014 in Pennsylvania, there's a lot of news about how this is gonna lay waste to everything and everything's gonna die and get eaten. Is that the concern? Are are we I mean, are the are the is going to kind of lay waste to our fields and landscapes and everything's gonna be barren once they make their way through Illinois?

Kacie Athey: 04:47

So no. I can I can definitely confirm that they will not lay waste to fields and landscapes? I think there's something important to note here with that this is an invasive species. We do actually categorize it that way. And I always like to point out that invasive species I'm sure you guys talked about invasive species a lot, but I would like to point out that they are, you know, non native and harmful.

Kacie Athey: 05:16

And so I always note that not all non native species are invasive. Of course, some are just non native. And what's interesting about spotted lanternfly in that context is is that when it showed up, as you said, I think the idea was that it was really going to be do incredible amounts of harm. I saw a speculative piece that said that they were worried it would be worse than the spongy moth, which we have been contending with as entomologists for a hundred and fifty years now. It's not gonna be that probably.

Kacie Athey: 05:54

I know that when it first arrived, there was a lot of concern because it does eat about 70 species or can feed on about 70 species of plants. And if you looked at pictures from when it arrived in Pennsylvania, you could see trees covered in lanternfly adults, and it just looked like it was kinda gonna take over. As the invasion front has moved, I think those high populations have crashed a bit, and so we're not seeing really those levels anymore. Additionally, even a lot of those plants it feeds on, it doesn't really seem to do much of that harm to them.

Ken Johnson: 06:34

This is kinda like Japanese beetle then where they show up at first, you get this really high you get a peak for a couple years and everything just kind of levels off.

Kacie Athey: 06:42

Yeah. Yeah. It does seem to be about like that. Now, all that being said, there is not nothing here. So if you are a grape producer, this is something you need to be on the lookout for, you need to be concerned about.

Kacie Athey: 06:59

Of our cultivated plants that is the one that these can do some harm to and that is the industry that control of this pest will have to be undertaken in. Now another little note is that for conventional grape growers, we actually have a lot of insecticides that seem to work pretty well on spotted lanternfly. A lot of things kill it. So it's not a particularly hard to kill pest. If you are an organic grape producer, I don't have a particularly, I don't have particularly good news for you as far as that goes.

Kacie Athey: 07:41

Because there we don't really know much about if any products control it on the organic market.

Chris Enroth: 07:48

Oh, okay. So I guess it's important to know then, especially if you're growing grapes. And these are the questions people always ask whenever there's a new invasive species. Where did they come from and how did they get here? And as someone who's about to go down to Southern Illinois to enjoy their their wine country this weekend, where are they in Illinois currently?

Chris Enroth: 08:14

Where do we find them?

Kacie Athey: 08:15

Yeah. So the infestation in Illinois, which was discovered, what, three weeks ago about, is in Cook County currently. That's as pinpointed as I will get on that, but it's in Cook County. So currently, there's no evidence of them being in Southern Illinois yet. They may be in Southern Illinois.

Kacie Athey: 08:39

We just, you know, haven't have reported sightings yet, possibly. But no, the infestation currently is in Cook County.

Chris Enroth: 08:45

And then, where do they hail from? Like, what's their like, what part of the world would we normally find them maybe where they're a bit better balanced with, nature?

Kacie Athey: 08:58

Yeah. So they're native to China, Bangladesh, and Vietnam specifically. And before they got to The United States, they actually invaded South Korea recently as well. So they have been on the move for for some time. I think they invaded South Korea in 2004 and since then have been to have invaded some other including, of course, The United States.

Kacie Athey: 09:19

Mhmm.

Chris Enroth: 09:21

And I I guess in terms of, like, vector, you know, thermal ash borer, it was like firewood. Don't move firewood.

Kacie Athey: 09:27

Mhmm.

Chris Enroth: 09:27

What's what's the vector for moving these guys around the country?

Kacie Athey: 09:31

Yeah. So the it's commercial transportation, basically. And really what the thought is is that it's that they are hitching a ride on things. So they're, you know, on cars or, again, if you're moving fruit and timber plants around, they're they're hitching a ride that way. And I think the thought is that's how they got to The United States as well.

Kacie Athey: 09:58

And they, and so they're moving humanated, basically. Which is really I mean, that's what Emerald ash borer is. Right? Firewood is still humanated movement.

Chris Enroth: 10:09

Cars, trucks. Yeah. Mhmm. Yep. Mhmm.

Chris Enroth: 10:11

Mhmm.

Kacie Athey: 10:11

Well, and spotted lanterns lie too. So one of the things that does make them a problem, generally is that they can bit be a bit of a nuisance pest because they'll aggregate on surfaces. So you'll find a bunch of them on, like, the side of a tree and they can do that on artificial surfaces too. So they'll aggregate on, yeah, things that are a building or whatever else. And so their behavior to to do those aggregations makes it so they could, you know, sit on the side of a truck and, you know, hitch a ride, as well.

Ken Johnson: 10:44

Always the humans. We rule everything.

Kacie Athey: 10:48

Yep.

Chris Enroth: 10:50

Makes the world interesting.

Ken Johnson: 10:52

Job security.

Kacie Athey: 10:54

Well, yes. Job security for entomologists, invasive species? Question mark.

Chris Enroth: 11:02

Just trying to categorize what bugs we have natively still. So Yes.

Ken Johnson: 11:07

Alright. So now that we know that they're they're they're not gonna kill everything, but they still could potentially cause some problems, and we haven't really talked about what they look like. So what what what do they what do they look like?

Kacie Athey: 11:19

So I will, start with they're actually really pretty. I think they're very charismatic insects. Often, I think invasive species, when I think about them, are, you know, yes, not some are pretty, but it's interesting to think of it that way. But they they're about an inch long. So, they're relatively large insect as well and they're pretty easy to spot when they're at rest.

Kacie Athey: 11:44

So, if you saw them on the side of a tree, their wings that you can see are gray with black spots and then they have kind of a an edge on them that's kind of, that has, outlined wing tips. And the hind wings so if they're in flight, you'll be able to see the hind wings, and the hind wings are red and black in color. So they're really, easy to see. And the the body itself is mostly black. It's got some yellow sides on the body.

Kacie Athey: 12:13

So again, a lot of color going on in this insect. And then the immatures are also super cool. So the smallest of the immatures, the smallest nymphs are black with white spots. As they get older, the color the base color starts to go red. So they look kinda like they're, you know, more red, but they still have that black base and then white spots on them.

Kacie Athey: 12:32

So they're just a really charismatic insect. I will say that as adults, they do with their coloration given those hind wings being really colored and the forewings not, is they will often look like other sort of underwing mods and things that we have from far away. So they are a charismatic insect, and they are pretty distinctive. But always keep in mind that things often look like other things. And so when you're trying to identify if this is the thing that you have, make sure that you're looking for those spots on those four wings and really looking closely to make sure it's not just a moth.

Ken Johnson: 13:10

And I'll say a lot of at least initially, a lot of the pictures that were floating around were of them with their their wings spread like this. I think a lot of times that kinda gave people, you know, we're just gonna look for this red insect, but usually you just see them with the the wings folded up, so you don't necessarily always see that written. I don't think that that picture with the wings spread, don't think that's used quite as much as it was. But

Kacie Athey: 13:34

Yeah. Yeah. There's definitely pictures where their wings are at rest that are a much better thing to look at if you think that you have found a lanternfly because that's what it's gonna look like when it's sitting on a on a tree or anything like that. And you can kind of see those those four wings, you can almost see the color through them as well a little bit, which is not gonna happen if it's a moth that would you'd be confused, you know, with that. And that again is only really if they're in flight.

Kacie Athey: 14:02

Obviously, if they're in rest, you're not probably gonna confuse it with a lot of other things.

Chris Enroth: 14:06

We you've described a kind of there's there there are different life stages here. We talked about their AK scene and their adults. So could we talk a bit about their life cycle though, in terms of maybe the timing? Do they have an annual life cycle? Are there multiple generations per year?

Chris Enroth: 14:26

Maybe walk us through the year and what should we expect to see during certain times of the year?

Kacie Athey: 14:32

Yeah, yeah. So they have one generation a year.

Chris Enroth: 14:35

Okay.

Kacie Athey: 14:35

So they during the so I'll start with sort of the fall. So they they have they lay their eggs in September through November. So around right now, if you were in a place that had them, they'd be in that egg laying stage. You'd have the adults out mating and laying eggs. The overwintering is the eggs.

Kacie Athey: 14:57

So they'll lay those eggs and eggs hang out all winter long on tree bark mostly, and they're kind of nondescript, but they're on on tree bark. Then in the spring, those eggs will hatch. So it's usually late April or, you know, early May, generally speaking, is when you're gonna see those first really small nymphs. Again, those are the black ones with the white spots. And then they're going to spend from that until late July going through their, nymphal growth stages, going from that, you know, black color to being much more red and obviously bigger.

Kacie Athey: 15:34

And then the adults really show up in late July through, again, like November, depending. They're flying around looking for mates, that sort of thing, laying eggs. And so your interaction with them if you're a homeowner is probably gonna be more on that sort of fall type time because that's when you're gonna see them the most probably, you know, near your house. As opposed to if you were, you know, a grape grower, you'd be contending with them during the summer.

Chris Enroth: 16:03

Right. Yeah. I remember watching, we were watching MLB game this summer, and it's the first time I've ever seen an insect, take top billing. You know, the the camera kept pointing to the lights and there were lanternflies like all over the stadium. It was kind of like Taylor Swift at a Chiefs game, you know, it was lanternfly spotted lanternfly.

Chris Enroth: 16:29

So yeah, just I I just thought that was interesting.

Ken Johnson: 16:34

Mhmm.

Chris Enroth: 16:34

National broadcast of MLB game, spotted lanternfly getting top billing there.

Kacie Athey: 16:40

Yep. Yep. Because there was just so many of them all trying to mate.

Ken Johnson: 16:44

Mhmm. Yep. As I say, you wanna discuss your your interview your celebrity interview about since we're on the topic of famous weather microphones.

Kacie Athey: 16:57

Yes. So, I was contacted by a celebrity reporter, within the last couple of weeks and she wanted me to, either, to confirm or deny whether or not Leonardo DiCaprio was correct in squishing a spotted lanternfly. So whether or not I would say that he was justified in doing such a thing or whether or expert would say that he did the wrong thing because he's an environmentalist and he killed that bug. And so the title is Leonardo DiCaprio Free to Squish Spotted Lanternfly Says Expert. It's an article that he says out there.

Kacie Athey: 17:43

Wow. But, yeah, it made enough news that the tabloid things were like, oh, we need to figure out if this is an acceptable thing for him to have done.

Chris Enroth: 17:51

This is amazing. And and SNL even did a a skit on Spotted

Kacie Athey: 17:57

Lanternfly. I know. Know. The costume was amazing. I love it.

Chris Enroth: 18:00

It was. Man, we gotta get

Kacie Athey: 18:04

this. That costume.

Chris Enroth: 18:05

We we need the costume. We need the insect's agent. Like, how do we get how do we break out like this, like the spotted lanternfly has? So it's fascinating how this is kind of embroiled pop culture too.

Kacie Athey: 18:19

Yeah.

Ken Johnson: 18:21

Start eating everything.

Kacie Athey: 18:22

Yes. Yeah. Just start eating all the treats. Just go into into vineyards and start eating the grapes. They'll love that.

Ken Johnson: 18:32

All kinds of people coming for you. So we know they're in they're in Cook County area. And and one question I've gotten is, you know, how do I how do I keep them out of my yard? So if you're in Cook County or or as they will eventually spread throughout the state, Is there a way we can keep them out of the yards?

Kacie Athey: 18:53

So my best advice on that, honestly, is to not have tree of heaven in your yard, really. So, again, it's it's not like you're gonna cut down your silver maple tree or something, because they'll you know, there's a lot of things they will feed on. But their favorite food is tree of heaven, and it is a weed tree. No one, I think, on purpose plants tree of heaven. But if you have weedy areas in your yard that have it, if you can remove it, that's gonna be one of the better ways to keep it away from your yard because that's what it would want to eat most likely, at this at this point.

Kacie Athey: 19:34

I would say that would be the best advice is just don't have their favorite food in your yard. Also, I mean, you know, you're not planting grapes either that helps, but most people don't have grapes in their backyard. Some do, but, and in that case, I think you're not necessarily preventing them from completely getting in your yard if you have plants they like to eat, much like anything else. But, know, be on the lookout. As I said before, there is a lot of things that, are pretty effective if you want to use insecticides.

Kacie Athey: 20:07

We we recommend you squish them still. Although I should put out in the PSA that here in Illinois, if you think you see one, take a picture of it and send it send the picture to lanternfly@illinois.edu. You can squish it after that, but please take a picture so we know your location, so we can investigate, you know, as it moves. We'd like to know where it is as quickly as possible. So my my my advice of squishing it is still true, but, like, take a picture first.

Kacie Athey: 20:41

Let's make sure that we've seen where it is before you before you go all squishing it just yet.

Ken Johnson: 20:48

So and I want once we can't get to the point of where, you know, squishing it isn't gonna cover it anymore for managing them, what are what are some other ways we can we can manage it? I know you mentioned some there insecticides that work pretty good on them. Mhmm. And

Kacie Athey: 21:02

it's Conventional insecticide, as it turns out. So even, you know, some of the oil sprays, you could I don't know how effective right now what the research shows, but when it comes to eggs, you know, one of the ways to really cut down on any of these populations, if you see those egg cases in the fall and you can find them on your trees, get rid of those. Again, it I'm still saying manual removal at this point, but, you know, that's your first, line of defense, if you will. If you find that you have them in your yard, getting rid of those egg cases will prevent that from, at least, in your yard, reinvesting. But right now, I think a lot of what has been done is is focus more on the insectified realm, and they do travel quite well.

Kacie Athey: 21:51

They jump pretty far. They can walk or fly, like, three to four miles. So one of the issues that has like, grape growers is that it's easy for them to reinvest an area because they can travel pretty well. And so, again, you're not gonna if they're in your area, you're probably outside of just watching and spraying a lot, you're never gonna prevent them entirely from being in your yard. And I'm sure that as we go forward, there will be other control more creative control mechanisms that people will, start researching and looking into.

Kacie Athey: 22:25

But right now, you know, a lot of it has been into the insecticide effectiveness. And and, again, get rid of tree of heaven. Make it go away. Cannot overstate that. It doesn't need to be in your yard anyway.

Kacie Athey: 22:36

Make it go away.

Ken Johnson: 22:37

And you mentioned they're they're laying eggs. Can you describe the the egg cases again? So if people especially people kinda Cook County if they're looking for them.

Kacie Athey: 22:45

Yeah. So they kind of they're kinda brownish, they do tend to to, kinda blend into the the bark a little. They seem to lay their eggs mostly on bark the bark of trees, and they do have a covering. And so they have kind of a brown covering over the top, and all of it would be you could scrape off, as far as the the egg masses go. And you can find pictures of those if you look up spotted lanternfly to look see what that looks like on your tree.

Kacie Athey: 23:15

And they're pretty big egg masses, but it they can be kinda hard to find because they're not a different color necessarily than the bark, which I'm sure is by design.

Chris Enroth: 23:24

Yeah. It

Ken Johnson: 23:25

kinda looks like a kinda mud splotch of mud. Yeah. A waxy splotch of mud, and then over time, it kinda it's gonna break up over time and get kinda cracked.

Kacie Athey: 23:36

Yeah. That's a great way to describe it. Yeah. Absolutely.

Ken Johnson: 23:40

So we can probably track down some pictures and and throw them in.

Chris Enroth: 23:43

Mhmm. Mhmm. Yeah.

Kacie Athey: 23:44

There's quite

Chris Enroth: 23:44

a Yeah. Making notes right now.

Ken Johnson: 23:46

Mhmm. Yeah.

Kacie Athey: 23:49

There's quite a few ones available of the of the egg masses.

Chris Enroth: 23:53

Well, okay. So if I'm scouting for them, I know I can look on the trunk for the egg masses. For the adults, if I'm in my yard and I'm scouting, am I also gonna be looking at trunks since these guys are I mean, they they suck sap. They they're, sap suckers, leaf hopping, sap sucking, lantern flies. So where do I look for the adults?

Kacie Athey: 24:16

Yeah. So they're gonna be on trunks, limbs, and shoots. That's That's what they're gonna be feeding on. So adults and nymphs especially. When when you're, you know, throughout the summer, they're gonna be feeding on those parts of the plant.

Kacie Athey: 24:28

So that's what you're gonna be looking at. They don't feed on they don't directly feed on the fruits and they don't directly feed on leaves, really, but shoots, limbs, and and trunks. And the trunks is more of the, like, resting on. The limbs and shoots are more of where the feeding is happening, on a tree, anyway.

Chris Enroth: 24:49

Okay. And then I this bears repeating. You see it, take a picture. Mhmm. Send it to what's the email address again?

Kacie Athey: 24:57

Lanternfly@Illinois.edu.

Chris Enroth: 25:00

Okay. And then squish it.

Kacie Athey: 25:03

Yes. Then you may squish it. You are allowed to squish it. Yes. But picture first.

Kacie Athey: 25:09

And obviously, you know your own location, but make sure that that's, you know, included in your email so that we know where to where to come and check.

Chris Enroth: 25:16

Excellent. And okay. I have to ask because I deal with brown marmorated stink bug a lot. Like, I'm waiting for that population to go down in my house. It is not.

Chris Enroth: 25:28

Do lanternflies smell bad when you squish them? Oh. Or should I report back once I I find them?

Kacie Athey: 25:37

You know, I don't know, but lanternflies are not that type of bug. So I don't know that they have scent glands. I don't know. I don't think they would smell, but I cannot promise you that. A lot of because a lot of true bugs smell that are related to stink bugs.

Kacie Athey: 26:02

The little minute pirate bugs that come out in the fall and bite people, they smell if you squish them. But I don't think most of the plant hoppers do.

Chris Enroth: 26:13

I I was moving things around in the garage this weekend, and I put my hand behind a box that was against the wall that had probably, like, two dozen stink bugs, and my hand came back just awful. No amount of soap could take that odor away. So

Kacie Athey: 26:28

Yeah. They'll also stain your hands.

Chris Enroth: 26:31

Mhmm. Yep. I noticed that too. Yeah. Mhmm.

Kacie Athey: 26:34

Mhmm. And that does not go away for, like, a long time.

Chris Enroth: 26:37

Mhmm.

Kacie Athey: 26:37

It's, it's fun.

Ken Johnson: 26:40

I've also been told they they taste like they smell too.

Kacie Athey: 26:44

Oh, I bet they do.

Chris Enroth: 26:46

I will I will not try that one. No.

Ken Johnson: 26:50

The person who was telling me this was this is Master Gardener training. They said they were picking some lettuce, and they had some stink bugs in it, they didn't know it, and they ate them. And they taste exactly like they

Kacie Athey: 26:59

smell. Interesting. Interesting.

Chris Enroth: 27:02

My middle child would take, lady beetles that came in in the fall too and would eat them. He's fine now. Well,

Kacie Athey: 27:14

they wouldn't hurt him then, so it's fine too.

Chris Enroth: 27:16

Yeah. I don't think they tasted good. Probably not. Still ate them.

Kacie Athey: 27:23

Yeah. No. And usually, when when people are eating bugs, they'll, like, cook them first

Ken Johnson: 27:31

Mhmm.

Kacie Athey: 27:31

And do a variety of things before they eat them, not so much just pick them up.

Chris Enroth: 27:37

Yep. And and normally colors are a warning sign in nature. And so the spotted lanternfly being so colorful, I mean, it's it's probably more of just for show, not necessarily that it tastes or smells bad. It's just saying, hey. Leave me alone.

Chris Enroth: 27:54

Probably not good.

Kacie Athey: 27:55

Well, yeah, it's probably doing the, you know, the mimicry of other things that would be distasteful because it doesn't consume any plants that it could get the chemicals from that could make it distasteful, and obviously doesn't stink like a stink bug does. And so, yeah, it's that it's that fake warning coloration instead of being a true indicator that it's dangerous.

Ken Johnson: 28:24

Sounds like we need to find someone to have a taste test.

Kacie Athey: 28:28

Right? Oh, that sounds like a fun game.

Chris Enroth: 28:33

Is it a stink bug? Is it a lanternfly? Yeah.

Ken Johnson: 28:36

Disclaimer, don't do this at home.

Chris Enroth: 28:38

Yeah. Do not

Kacie Athey: 28:39

do this. Don't This is not a challenge.

Chris Enroth: 28:45

No. Do not let your children eat bugs off the windowsill.

Kacie Athey: 28:49

I think if if I didn't mention this before, the one other thing that may be a problem for is agritourism. So that swarming behavior that you talked about before with the baseball game can happen at UPICS and things like that as well. And so that is one concern that that we do have is some of the agritourism things. Or if people are going to a nice vineyard and the vines are all covered in sooty mold and full of lantern flies, you know, sort of that. It's not just the direct damage to the plant.

Kacie Athey: 29:22

It's also just the interaction with humans.

Ken Johnson: 29:25

Real quick back to the eating stuff. So what was it? A month or two ago, Chris, we did a show on planting trees and made it be on the lookout for periodical cicadas. So Mhmm. You won't listen to Chris and I.

Ken Johnson: 29:37

Maybe you'll listen to Kacie. So anything periodical cicada related wanna mention while you're on?

Kacie Athey: 29:44

Yeah. So 2024 here in Illinois is our big periodical cicada year. So we will have one of the broods of seventeen year cicadas that will come out. That's the Northern Illinois brood, specifically. And we will have a group of thirteen year cicadas, the great southern brood, which will take up large portions of our state.

Kacie Athey: 30:10

Now there's a third brood called the Mississippi Valley brood that is a twenty twenty eight set of periodical cicadas that likely will have a set of them that come out four years early. If that happens, we're basically having periodical cicadas everywhere in our state in 2024. So if you are a orchard owner and you are planning on planting any tiny trees in 2024, maybe don't. Because theoretical cicadas really are only harmful and or can kill trees to very young trees or potentially anything that has, like, a lot of damage to it. So, I would recommend if you can avoid planting any brand new trees in 2024, whether they be orchard trees or one you wanna put in your yard, maybe wait.

Kacie Athey: 31:03

If you cannot wait, you will probably have to spray to avoid damage to your trees when they're very small. Mature trees will be fine. That's fine. You don't need to worry about that. Now I know for a large orchard production, when periodical cicadas are out, often they are spraying for them.

Kacie Athey: 31:20

But if you're a homeowner or something and your trees are mature, just enjoy the sights and sounds of the periodical cicadas of 2024.

Ken Johnson: 31:28

Yeah. With that extended, if if you planted a tree this fall, you'd want to keep an eye on it too.

Kacie Athey: 31:33

You would. Yes. Yes. You would. Yep.

Kacie Athey: 31:35

Absolutely. Anything that's going to be very young in the spring, you want to be really careful with because, the you know, it's just the sheer amount of cicadas that come out and the damage is because what they do is they have this little sort of serrated knife thing that is their ovipositor that's their egg laying vessel. So they're actually cutting into small twigs and laying eggs side of those. So your little twigs and shoots are getting severely damaged. And if you're a very young tree, it just can't really handle that.

Chris Enroth: 32:02

I just planted two trees on Sunday. Good to know. Yeah.

Kacie Athey: 32:05

Yeah. Be careful with them.

Chris Enroth: 32:07

Will do. I I think I'm gonna buy some insect netting, and I might try the physical barrier for these guys, tie them up. I mean, they're very small. They're they're the they're my height. So I can do insect netting over top, tie them around the base of the trunk, and hopefully that should Yes.

Chris Enroth: 32:23

Take them

Kacie Athey: 32:24

Yes.

Ken Johnson: 32:25

Okay.

Kacie Athey: 32:25

That will that will certainly help. I mean, I can't imagine, unless you have such an infestation, that they're able to, like, cut through the netting with their ovipositor. Ovipositor doesn't do that, so it shouldn't be doing that. That's a good way to go. Yeah.

Kacie Athey: 32:39

Barriers. And I guess I could go back to spotted lanternfly for a hot second and say that if you have rapes in your yard and you're very concerned and you know you have spotted lanternfly in in the area, trying a barrier method is not a terrible idea either. Netting is always a thing insect exclusion is always a thing you can try, and that's certainly true with periodical scadas. Of course, you do have to make sure you tie around that trunk because if you just put it over the top, they're just gonna climb up the trunk of the tree. So you need to make sure that you've, you know, basically made it into a present.

Chris Enroth: 33:14

Mhmm. You cannot come out until after the cicadas go away. Mhmm. Mhmm. Well, that was a lot of great information about spotted lanternfly and a little tidbit about our periodical cicadas that we're gonna be seeing next year.

Chris Enroth: 33:28

The Good Growing podcast is a production of University of Illinois Extension edited this week by me, Chris Enroth. A special thank you to Doctor. Kacie Athey for being on the show today to talk to us about spotted lanternfly. Thank you for setting me straight when I started off on Drosophila's here. Kacie, thank you for being on the show.

Kacie Athey: 33:46

Thank you for having me. It was fun.

Chris Enroth: 33:48

And thank you, Ken, for being with me as always every single week, here on the podcast.

Ken Johnson: 33:55

Yes. Thank you, Kacie. If we do a cicada cooking episode, we'll let you know.

Kacie Athey: 34:00

Oh, I will be here.

Ken Johnson: 34:04

So we're gonna have to plan this now. Keep talking about it.

Kacie Athey: 34:08

Just need to do it.

Ken Johnson: 34:09

It never buys hopes up.

Kacie Athey: 34:11

We just keep advertising a thing that never happens.

Ken Johnson: 34:17

Hey, Chris, thank you as always. And let's do this again next week.

Chris Enroth: 34:20

Oh, we shall do this again next week. We're going to be talking with Doctor. Chelsea Harbach with Iowa State University all about spooky plant diseases. It's Halloween coming up. We're gonna talk about those, terrifyingly, what she would call terrific plant diseases.

Chris Enroth: 34:36

She thinks they're fun. So listeners, thank you for doing what you do best and that is listening or if you're watching us on YouTube watching. And as always, keep on growing.