The spotted lanternflies belong to a group of plant-hoppers that eat a variety of tree nutrients, including cherry, maple, and black gum trees, which serve as both a nesting and feeding place for their young. The Lanternfly-Killing Wasp (Dryinus browni) is a parasitic wasp that brainwashes the host through stringer insertion in order to protect its babies, which will be eaten by their young. While native to four Asian continents (China, India, South Korea, and North Korea), they have been imported to the United States by firewood exports in 2014. Their influence over nine states in the United States, including New Jersey, New York, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Delaware, has caused native insects and animals to change their diets to this new arrival, with chickens, praying mantis, and green frogs eating these insects to reduce their population in balance.

The basic goal of host trees is to provide a safe haven for migratory insects from other continents. In this case, the Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus altissima), a Chinese invasive plant, provides a safe haven for Spotted Lanternflies to hide from predators while also nurturing the next generation of Spotted Lanternflies. Trees being infested by these Spotted Lanternflies would result in tree mold and trunk wounds resulting it death creating an effect of the ecosystem’s dependency on trees. Their diet must be of plants and trees that have nutrient sap in the trunk, stem, and leaf parts of the tree indiscriminately. However, they may also consume apples, grapes (including the vines), and peaches that the Spotted Lanternfly would eat vegetables; not only do Spotted Lanternflies consume fruit and vegetables. But they also scour the land for orchards and gardens to feed on, which will become a shortage of fruit and vegetables for supermarkets into scarcity for people.

Such strategy allows Spotted Lanternflies to anticipate their direction without falling to the ground, which most lanternflies have tried and failed to do. This gives rise to the idea of how Spotted Lanternflies easily migrated across the North American continent, flying from tree to tree and populating their kind to become an unstoppable force. Their average ground speed is 2.65 m/s as they take off at the 10 second mark in their bout towards the upwind by 4.64 m/s from the adult Spotted Lanternflies. This tactic was discovered through anemotactic measurements, which charted the Spotted Lanternfly’s movements in relation to the direction of the wind, allowing anyone to learn about their behavioral patterns.

Proposals for managing these (including capturing and returning them to their source or eliminating them on sight near agricultural areas, as well as monitoring any lanternflies in the area) are both expensive and extremely complicated. The method of using traps and lures to capture Spotted Lanternflies requires patience and caution in determining the best hiding spot for these insects, which can be found in trees or other nearby objects. Such traps using sticky bands on tree trunks are made to stop them in their track through the use of insect attractant (methyl salicylate), or the Pecan Weevil trap makes use of insecticide stripes that kills the Spotted Lanternfly and drops towards a jar attached and stapled by Velcro strips, glue, and stapler onto the tree. Other methods include using chemicals to trap (fluon solution) and kill (propylene glycol) both young and adult Spotted Lanternflies being that are strained into a plastic bag, as well as building brown prisms out of cables and pipes with sticky bands wrapped around them. Using insecticides all over the trees is an extreme method of protecting both orchard and forest trees from extinction. These are not only lethal to bugs, but they can also be extremely toxic to humans and animals if they eat or smell them for both omnivore and herbivore alike.

The climate arises as a defense against adult Spotted Lanternflies in the winter season, when the freezing temperatures cause the adult population to die off, but their eggs, which are inside a host tree, will survive until spring, when they can flourish. The new generation of Spotted Lanternflies, lay about 30-50 of the egg masses produced by the female Spotted Lanternfly and will automatically die after laying 2 or 3 egg masses. Spotted lanternflies have a tendency to plan to survive through adapting in a different country with the advantages and disadvantages that they would encounter with Americans becoming more aware of how these insects will be curbed again. Traps were used to capture and eliminate them, and they were reintroduced by native animals and insects in America, as well as their motivations and behavioral instincts.