Other day checking how outside hop plants are doing after lots of rain over several days.
Discover Cluster hop bines have black beetles with white spots. Look up on the 'net. These are lantern flies.
Tried picking off the beetles. They quickly jump.
Anyone know of something to spray to eliminate the beetles and not ruin/damage the hops?
Thanks.
I don’t know how feasible this is for you, but bats would eat them.
Check the interwebs for natural deterrents such as white vinegar and neem oil.
If you have a heavy infestation, pyrethrin spray should knock them down.
We get them in Maryland now, and although I sometimes find the honeydew on the leaves that they eat, they don’t seem to cause any real damage to my plants.
Check with your state agriculture department. Lantern flies are an invasive species that pose a real threat to many crops. They are a priority threat in some states.
Yes, they are highly invasive. Unfortunately the advice has been “stomp on them when you see them” which I assume is as effective as sticking your head between your legs during a nuclear strike. You should learn what the eggs look like, and if you see them on tree bark or concrete in the winter, scrape them off to reduce the infestation around your house.
Also, if you have any tree of heaven in your yard, take them out. They are also invasive and are the main food source for lanternflies.
You’ll want to use a “hack and squirt” method to kill a mature tree before cutting it down, otherwise you’ll get ten times as many replacements coming back from the root system.
We do have a few bats in the neighborhood. There are many more bats in the older section of town nearby. However, unsure, even if we had more bats in my neighborhood, the bats would find the small black beetles as the beetles hide within the hop leaves.
No, I don’t have the tree of heaven. However, whom knows about neighbors.
I searched the ‘net before posting my question. Some indicate using vinegar whereas others state vinegar doesn’t work to remove/prevent the lantern fly beetles. However, on Saturday, I sprayed all lantern fly beetles with white vinegar as I didn’t have any neem oil. Checked the hops on Sunday. Only seeing a few lantern fly beetles. Unfortunately, the vinegar spray curled the hop leaves and turned the hop leaves brown. Therefore, based on my experience, I do not recommend using vinegar spray on hops.
Sorry for the delay in replying to the posts. I’m having ongoing log in problems with the forums. I have to get AHA involved each time.
Yeah, vinegar and sunshine is a terrific way to kill weeds, and likely lots of other plants.