Spotted lanternflies to start hatching in New York, New Jersey

Editor's note: The video above is from March 3, 2024.

NEW YORK (PIX11) -- As May approaches, the tri-state area spotted lanternflies will begin to hatch.

New York State's Department of Environmental Conservation said SLFs are a major threat to the state's agricultural industry and should be killed.

A map from the New York State Integrated Pest Management Program showed just how infested the tri-state region is. All of New Jersey, New York City, Long Island and New York's northern suburbs were highlighted as infestations.

According to Cornell University, the SLFs will hatch from May through June and will be fully formed adults by July through December, while they start to lay their eggs in the fall months of September through November.

The DEC gave the following steps to help stop the infestation:

• Learn how to identify SLF.
• Inspect outdoor items such as firewood, vehicles, and furniture for egg masses.
• If you visit other states with SLF, be sure to check all equipment and gear before leaving.
• Destroy egg masses by scraping them into a bucket of hot, soapy water or a baggie/jar of hand sanitizer

The SLFs hatching aligns with "cicada-geddon," where a double dose of cicadas are about to invade a couple of parts of the United States in what University of Connecticut cicada expert John Cooley said. The last time these two broods came out together was in 1803. Thomas Jefferson, who wrote about cicadas in his Garden Book but mistakenly called them locusts, was president.