52 counties across the state of Pennsylvania — including all of the counties in our coverage area — are quarantining spotted lantern flies.
"In those counties there are confirmed population of spotted lantern fly which is a destructive, invasive insect that threatens agriculture and Pennsylvania way of life,” said Shannon Powers, the Press Secretary for the PA Dept. of Agriculture.
All of this in efforts to kill off and prevent these insects from spreading even more throughout the commonwealth.
“The lantern fly was first discovered in PA in Berks county in late 2014 and it doesn't get very far on its own,” added Powers. “The quarantine prohibits transporting items like firewood, yard waste, anything that can have spotted lantern flies at any stage of their development on it and that includes you know not just agricultural products, but other things because the pests are everywhere outside and they lay their eggs on everything outside.”
Powers tells 6 News there's a unique detail about this quarantine that involves those who travel for business.
“So if you're traveling in and out of a quarantined area so if you're traveling out of a quarantine county for business you need to get a permit which just means going online, learning what lantern flies look like at those different stages and knowing how to inspect your vehicle so you don't take a hitchhiker to a new area and infest a new area with lantern flies," said Powers.
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