Can a Beneficial Wasp Whip Spotted Lanternfly?

The California Department of Food and Agriculture recently granted Mark Hoddle, Director of the Center for Invasive Species Research at University of California, Riverside, $544,000 to test whether a tiny parasitic wasp, also originally from China, could be the solution to the looming problem of a spotted lanternfly invasion. Hoddle explained that the wasp has a needle-like appendage it uses to lay its own eggs inside the lantern fly’s eggs. While developing, the wasp larvae eat and kill their hosts, and then emerge after chewing escape holes through the lanternfly eggs.

Advertisement

These wasps pose no threat to plants or people, but before they can be used to control the lantern fly, Hoddle must prove they won’t cause unnecessary harm to other native insects.

“We can’t just release a Chinese parasite into the wild in California,” Hoddle said. “Chances are low it will harm the wrong targets, but we have to be sure.”

Damage from the spotted lanternfly could extend well beyond California. According to industry reports, the state is the world’s fourth-largest wine producer, selling an estimated $35 billion domestically and exporting $1.5 billion annually. So far, spotted lanternfly shows a preference to grapevines in the U.S. and has threatened a multitude of crops in Asia, where it originates.

“It secretes copious amounts of “honeydew,” a waste product that encourages black, sooty mold and damages a plant’s ability to grow,” he said. The honeydew also attracts undesirable insects such as ants and hornets.

Top Articles
Healthy Soils at Center of New $5 Million Initiative for California Citrus Growers

Damage from the spotted lanternfly could extend well beyond California. According to industry reports, the state is the world’s fourth-largest wine producer, selling an estimated $35 billion domestically and exporting $1.5 billion annually.

Around 44% of non-native insects arriving in California were first established elsewhere in the U.S. Given the speed with which the spotted lanternfly has spread, Hoddle realized the state needed a proactive approach to this predictable problem.

“Normally, when a bug shows up, we try to contain and eradicate it,” Hoddle said. “But by the time the population is found, it tends to already be widespread and hard to handle.

0