The Bucks County Conservation District is looking for volunteers to help fighting the spotted lanternfly (SLF) by placing sticky collar traps around trunks of Tree-of-Heaven (Ailanthus altissima). The spotted lanternfly (Lycorma delicatula) is a moth-type insect native to South-East Asia. It is have been estimated that the invasive pest was introduced in Pennsylvania and the USA around 2012. SLF poses risk to grapes, pines, and many fruit tree species.
In 2018, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture (PDA), in close conjunction with the Penn State Extension offices in each county of the SLF quarantine zone (Berks, Schuylkill, Carbon, Monroe, Northampton, Lehigh, Bucks, Montgomery, Philadelphia, Delaware, Chester, Lancaster and Lebanon counties) will organize volunteers to control SLF nymphs on the Trees-of-Heaven. The sticky trap collars may be placed as early as the last week of of April, but no later than mid-May.