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The spotted lanternfly, native to parts of Asia, was first found in the US in 2014 in eastern Pennsylvania.

In areas where lanternfly invasions started earlier, such as Pennsylvania and New Jersey, the populations initially grew exponentially, but the citizen-science data showed them peaking and declining after four or five years.

The iNaturalist data showed New York having the largest lanternfly population in 2022, and based on patterns in states with earlier invasions, the researchers predicted that the population would peak and decline in the years that followed -- a prediction that played out this year, with far less frequent sightings of the insects.

Dr. Robert C. Venette, a research biologist and director of the Minnesota Invasive Terrestrial Plants and Pests Center, is paying close attention to multiple invasive species, including "several bark beetles, emerald ash borer, spotted lanternfly, hemlock wooly adelgid, oak wilt, Palmer amaranth and Japanese knotweed, among others."

Eggs of the spotted lanternfly, an invasive species that’s wreaked havoc on crops across more than a dozen states, were recently discovered in California.