Using the spotted lanternfly to control a different kind of invasive species

We've inoculated Tree of Heaven with a native fungus called verticillium. We want to see if spotted lanternfly can vector the fungus from infected trees to healthy trees and move the fungus around for us. So what we've done is caged spotted lanternfly on the trees so that we are certain that we have force fed them on infected trees. We're looking specifically at treating it on the edges of vineyards. So spotted lanternfly will live on Tree of Heaven, reproduce, lay its eggs, feed on Tree of Heaven preferentially, and then disperse into the vineyards and cause problems for the winery. Spotted lanternfly in particular can triple insecticide costs and management costs for vineyards like this, so it's a big impact on their bottom line. Loving Cups is one of the only, if not the only, organic vineyard in Virginia, so they have limited options in what they can do to treat the trees on the edges of their vineyard, So hopefully it's an option for them for suppressing Tree of Heaven near their vineyards, suppressing that reservoir for the spotted lanternfly. Use of verticillium is a biological control. They take a lot of research to get done and move from the experimental research phase into practical real-world applications. We don't really have a hope of eradicating either Tree of Heaven or the spotted lanternfly. The best thing we can do is suppress their abundance for as long as it takes for us to figure out better solutions for them in our managed spaces like vineyards I didn't know how prevalent lanternflies were before I started this study I've always loved catching bugs so this is kind of the fun work for me but yeah it's it's difficult they're they're tricky I'm a forestry major I knew that this summer I wanted to do something kind of intersecting entomology and forestry so this has been a great opportunity I was having a blast just going around they hop right into the cups and I got I think I got like four four full things so in my fair share of work it was great. This is what I want to do for my job I want to be able to collect data in the field design experiments and then analyze that data in the lab. This is just a part of that long long story of making them more of a natural part of our environment and less disruptive.