Overview

• Officials have abandoned eradication and are now running a slow-the-spread containment program relying on targeted insecticides and regular monitoring.
• Populations are firmly established in New York City and across Nassau and western Suffolk counties, with increasing sightings upstate and on Long Island’s East End.
• In well-infested zones residents are told to crush lanternflies on sight, while observers on Long Island’s North Fork must photograph, collect and submit specimens for state mapping.
• Cornell University’s citizen-science portal has catalogued thousands of public sightings to map the insect’s distribution and direct control efforts.
• Recent studies from Rutgers and NYU report earlier adult emergence, extended activity periods and bat and bird predation, though it remains unclear if natural predators will curb overall populations.