Spotted Lanternfly Update

Hello, everyone,

Spotted lanternfly is the newest invasive our fruit growers are having to deal with - fortunately, it is still limited in geographic range, but this range continues to expand. First egg hatch this season was reported on April 28. Development was slowed by the period of cool weather we experienced, but more nymphs are now being seen. SLF continues to expand its most intensive infestation in Frederick County, with several counties added. Clarke and Warren Counties now have scattered breeding populations, and individual finds have been made in Shenandoah,Page, Madison, Fauquier, Prince William, and Augusta Counties. The rankings for some of these sites may increase as further data are collected. It is important to note that there may not be breeding populations in some of the latter counties because of the ability of individual SLF to hitchhike. The VDACS-designated quarantine zone has been expanded beyond Frederick County to include Clarke and Warren Counties. Grape is the most vulnerable commercial crop. In October we discovered SLF at a commercial vineyard for the first time. However, the SLF range now surrounds some vineyards, so further detections in some of our northern vineyards are likely this season. SLF has also been detected at commercial orchards in Frederick County; impacts will be followed there as well. Please let me know of detections you may make in your vineyards. In addition, you can report finds of SLF into the following portal: https://ask2.extension.org/widget.html?team_id=1981?default_location=VA?default_county=All In order to move regulated articles from the infestations zone, certification is needed. This certification is available at this location: https://register.ext.vt.edu/search/publicCourseSearchDetails.do;jsessionid=E3FEE1B1C1921BA6848B382063FC0BDE?method=load&courseId=1066947 More later, Doug