In scouting my vineyard for lanternfly egg masses I made several non-scientific observations:
1. There are still a lot of adults around and they are much easier to kill now because they move slower in the cool weather.
2. They seem to have variety preferences. There were large numbers on Vidal, San Marco and Barbera, some on Tempranillo but very few on Chambourcin and Cab Franc despite the vineyards being in proximity to one another.
3. This is the most interesting observation. On many of the locations where the adults were positioned, there were also large populations of other insects – principally ants, ladybugs and wasps/yellowjackets. In some instances these other bugs were actually crawling over the lanternflies and around moist areas where the lanternflies were. I have two theories on this – 1) the other bugs are attracted to the sap that the lanternflies are extracting from the vine trunks, OR 2) the other bugs are feasting on the eggs the lanternflies are laying. It would be a welcome revelation if reason two is actually the case but I am not holding out hope!
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