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There may be no stopping the spotted lanternfly from arriving in Canada, but increasing public awareness may limit its threat to Niagara vineyards.

The invasive pest is a piercing-sucking insect that feeds on plant sap, stealing the fuel plants require to grow and thrive. It has devastated vineyards in the United States resulting in vine damage and lost yield.

Mackenzie DiGasparro, program development co-ordinator at the Invasive Species Centre in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., said an outreach and awareness campaign of the centre, Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Ontario Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Rural Affairs is underway.

To prevent the type of damage seen in places including Pennsylvania, DiGasparro said keeping the public informed about the spotted lanternfly and encouraging reporting is the “best thing that we can do.”

“We’ve found, historically, with invasive pests, it’s really just your average community members that are finding these invasive species. That’s really important in terms of prevention,” she said.

“The more the public knows about it, it’s basically more eyes on the ground for monitoring efforts.”

The plant hopper native to Southeast Asia is black with white spots, developing grey wings with black spots (and a bright red underwing) as it grows. Its eggs are laid in the fall, with the lanternfly eggs hatching in late spring. An adult measures about 2.5 centimetres long.

DiGasparro said there is a few key signs and symptoms for the public to watch out for, including muddy-grey egg masses on any hard flat surfaces.

Keep an eye on dark streaks and/or sap flowing from tree bark. In order to feed, the lanternfly pierces the bark.

Honeydew secretions and/or sooty mould at the base the trees are also an indicator.

Both adults and nymphs can be squished and killed, said DiGasparro. But for egg masses, it is best to “scrape the mass(es) into a plastic bag with hand sanitizer or alcohol to kill any viable eggs within the mass.” It can then be disposed into the garbage.

An additional option, said DiGasparro, is to report the spotted lanternfly’s preferred host, the tree of heaven.

“Tree of heaven (an invasive tree) is present in Ontario but we don’t have a good idea about what the distribution looks like,” she said.

Reporting trees of heaven helps give a “better understanding of this distribution and to further identify areas that are high-risk for spotted lanternfly to be found.”

DiGasparro said the tree of heaven if often mistaken for the native species black walnut or sumac, and “to distinguish between them, the leaves and twigs of tree of heaven release a foul odour when crushed.”

Debbie Zimmerman, chief executive officer of Grape Growers of Ontario, said while the tree of heaven is common, it can often be found in campgrounds. She encourages people to report anything they find.

“This is really an education for people, if you see them to let us know … everything is very much precautionary at this point,” she said, adding so far there has been no recorded spotted lanternflies in Niagara vineyards.

DiGasparro expressed concern about the reopening of the Canada-U.S. border, with a number of invasive species being able to move internationally through cross-border travel. Spotted lanternflies, she said, are able to lay eggs on any flat surface, including vehicle wheels or trailers.

“If you’re travelling, especially from a place like New York state that has positive detections of spotted lanternfly, you may want to be checking your vehicle and making sure that there’s no egg masses before you come back into Canada,” she said.

Both the spotted lanternfly and tree of heaven can be reported — with a photograph — through the EDDMapS website or app, or directly to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency

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