Insects Waking Up Now In VA: Spotted Lanternflies, Stink Bugs, Bees

VIRGINIA — There are likely guests in your house that you can't see. With the beginning of spring in Virginia, insects are emerging from their winter shelter and are ready to repopulate.

Most of these six- or eight-legged creatures are good bugs to have around. Others are maddeningly annoying but otherwise harmless. Some others, including spotted lanternflies and brown marmorated stink bugs, pose a genuine threat to fruits and vegetables and need to be dealt with before they cause harm.

The bug to squish on sight is the spotted lanternfly, experts say. The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services ordered a spotted lanternfly quarantine for Albemarle, Augusta, Carroll, Clarke, Frederick, Page, Prince William, Rockbridge, Rockingham, Shenandoah, Warren and Wythe counties, and the cities of Buena Vista, Charlottesville, Harrisonburg, Lexington, Lynchburg, Manassas, Manassas Park, Staunton, Waynesboro and Winchester.

Report spotted lanternfly sightings in Virginia at spottedlanternfly@vdacs.virginia.gov.

There’s no need to squish most bugs, but when it comes to the spotted lanternfly, don’t be shy about killing them — that’s if you don’t beat them right now, while they’re still in the egg stage. Otherwise, come summer and early fall, just pretend they’re grapes that have to be crushed for wine. Grapes are among the crops devoured by spotted lanternflies, which also threaten orchard crops and the logging industry.

Spotted lanternflies have been confirmed in 17 states — Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. Many other states have reported spotted lanternflies, which are efficient hitchhikers.

The bottom line: During spring lawn cleanup, keep an eye out for spotted lanternfly egg masses. Each female can lay at least two egg masses, which can produce around 50 insects each.

By now, egg masses will have faded from glossy white to gray or brown, and they’re about an inch and a half long. If you find an egg mass, snap a photo and report it to your state’s agriculture department, scrape it off with a knife or old credit card, put the whole thing in a plastic zippered bag filled with alcohol or hand-sanitizer and throw that away with the garbage.

In a couple of months, spotted lanternfly nymphs will hatch. They’ll be adults by mid-summer, and that’s when to squish lanternflies — before they can deposit more eggs.

• Related: What You Can Do To Control Destructive Spotted Lanternflies

Here are some other bugs to know and what to do about them:

Become A Backyard Stink Bug Warrior

The brown marmorated stink bugs that snuck into your house last fall are preparing to leave and replenish their species. It’s tempting to let them leave just as stealthily, but once they’re free to satisfy their voracious appetites, they’ll chew through fruit groves and ornamental plants.

In Virginia, stink bugs are considered a severe agricultural and nuisance problem, according to Stop the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug’s surveillance.

Stink bugs like to feast on your vegetable gardens, farmers' soybean crops, and black locust, maple, ash, and catalpa trees. They like cherries and raspberries, too.

When stink bugs feed on crops, damage can include everything from bruises and blemishes to aborted sweet corn kernels to a change in the sugar levels in some fruits.

The bottom line: When you see stink in your house, vacuum them up or sweep them right out the door if you have to, but do so as unobtrusively as possible because, when frightened, stink bugs emit a smell that will frighten you. If you do vacuum stink bugs, be sure to replace the bag immediately. If you have a bagless model, rinse the dust canister with vinegar.

Become a backyard stink bug warrior. Capturing them in commercially available traps is one option, but there also are several environmentally sound ways to tell them to bug out.

The Farmers’ Almanac points out that garlic repels stink bugs. They also don’t like mint — crush some dried mint around where you see them congregate; but mint is invasive, so be careful about where you plant it. Sunflowers and marigolds attract beneficial insects that enjoy a buffet of stink bug eggs and larvae. Sprinkle food-grade diatomaceous earth under and on the leaves of all fruits and vegetables resting on the ground. Or just make an anti-stink-bug potion with mild, soapy water made from dish dishwashing liquid, and spray it directly on the bugs.

Another Stinker That’s Full Of Beans

The kudzu bug, a relative of the brown marmorated stink bug, has found a veritable feast in soybean, peanut and other legume crops, mainly in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic states. It’s good they efficiently chew through invasive kudzu, the “vine that ate the South” that is making its way into the Midwest, Northeast and Oregon — but these bugs also kill food crops.

These bugs have no natural predators, and researchers are evaluating whether a tiny black, non-stinging wasp will be an effective weapon.

They like to cozy up inside your house when temperatures are cool, and if they’re distributed, they’ll emit a foul odor.

In Virginia the kudzu bug has been confirmed in counties many counties moving from south to north — including Fairfax, Arlington, Stafford and Spotsylvania.

The bugs have several generations in the South; ag specialists don't know how many they have in Virginia.

Kudzu bugs don’t like to spend the winter outdoors. In the fall, they often congregate on light colored surfaces, such as siding, fascia boards, etc. before moving into structures, said University of Maryland Extension. They will enter buildings under siding, gaps around windows, doors, vents, orany entry point they can find.

The bottom line: Rid your house of kudzu bugs the same way you would any stink bug — very carefully. A “true bug,” the kudzu is about the size of a ladybug but dark-colored. Because they’re relatively new to the United States, researchers don’t know the full extent of plant hosts, including your garden plants.

Synthetic chemical pesticides are the most effective kudzu bug control measures. Organic controls are more difficult. You can try to brush feeding kudzus into pails of soapy water. Squishing them works, too, but be sure to wear gloves, and hold your nose.

‘Parachuting’ Spiders On The Move

The huge “parachuting Joro spider that builds webs stretching 6 feet or more is “spreading like wildfire,” and has been spotted in Virginia and Maryland, according to a peer-reviewed study led by David Coyle, an assistant professor in Clemson University’s Department of Environmental Conservation.

The Joro spiders, which are native to Asia and likely hitched a ride in a shipping container, are “going to be able to inhibit most of the eastern U.S.,” Coyle said in a statement last fall when the study was published. “It shows that their comfort area in their native range matches up very well with much of North America.”

The bottom line: Learn to live with Joro spiders. They’re not doing any harm and may even serve as a tasty meal for birds. Chemical control is overkill, according to Coyle, because the applications will kill everything else, too.

• Related: Tick Bites Sending VA Residents To ER: What To Know

Let It Bee

On the friendlier side of the insect world, queen bees will be looking for a quick meal in your flowers. They’re important pollinators. In fact, bees pollinate 75 percent of the food consumed by humans worldwide, according to the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization.

Honeybees are in trouble. Their populations are declining around the world, and it’s up to us to do something about it. When you’re planting your garden or landscaping this year, lean into plants that encourage bees.

Here’s a fun fact: Bees see color and love yellow, purple, blue and white flowers, making echinacea, snapdragon, hostas and wildflowers excellent garden choices, according to Country Living, which has a list of 20 flowering plants bees love.

Many U.S. states, including Virginia, have enacted laws to save pollinators, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The laws generally fall into five categories: research, pesticides, habitat protection, beekeeping and public awareness.

Virginia law aims to limit pesticide use that can harm bees and boost beekeeping numbers:

• Virginia (SB 356 – 2016): Directs the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to develop a pollinator protection strategy to promote the health of and mitigate the risks to honey bees and other pollinators, as well as ensuring a strong agricultural economy and apiary industry. The strategy must include voluntary best management practices for pesticide users, beekeepers, landowners and agricultural producers.

The bottom line: Unless they’re causing damage with nests built on chimneys or in wall cavities, or if someone in your household is highly allergic to bees, let the bees be.

In cases where bees do have to go, don’t kill them. Call a professional extermination company with the clothing and equipment to remove and relocate the bees without irritating them.

You Had Us At ‘Needle’

A sting from an Asian needle ant probably won’t kill you, but in rare instances, the venom can be lethal to people who have reactions to other insect bites and stings. For the most part, the most severe reaction from a sting is a feeling of “pins and needles” that can persist for a couple of weeks.

Though established and well-traveled in the South since the 1930s, it’s making its way north up the Eastern Seaboard and has been reported in the Northwest and North Central U.S. Scientists have confirmed its presence in Maryland, Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.

The Asian needle ant typically lives in wooded areas but also crawls inside homes when temperatures chill. Ants are pretty good characters overall. But Asian needle ants infest residential, commercial and school kitchens and pilfer food, increasing the likelihood you’ll be stung with the venom, according to North Carolina State University Extension Service.

These opportunistic ants are waking up now, ahead of other ant species, and may already be making life generally difficult for other ants by a) eating them alive, b) eating their food or c) making a coup on their nests.

The bottom line: The world needs ants. They aerate the soil, creating underground channels for water and oxygen plants need to reach their roots and grow. Asian needle ants are bad actors, though. Get rid of them.

The extension service in North Carolina recommends several commercially available insecticide baits, cautioning that it’s important first to confirm you’re dealing with Asian needle ants and not a beneficial species and also warning against broadcast applications.