Anne Johnson

It’s spring. Trees have leaves again. The birds are chirping. And insects are crawling back out of hell from their winter slumber, including the invasive spotted lanternfly.Simone Giertz on Project Failures | Gizmodo Talks Jessica Ware, an entomologist and an associate curator in the division of invertebrate zoology at the American Museum of Natural History, confirmed to Earther that the Northeast is going to see a lot of the spotty insects this summer. It was introduced into the U.S. from China in 2012 and has quickly…

A spotted lanternfly at a vineyard in Kutztown, Pennsylvania in 2019. Photo: Matt Rourke (AP)Have you seen a black and white bug flying around? Does it have vivid red back wings? Is it covered in polka dots that would make Cruella de Vil envious? If so, you’ve seen a spotted lanternfly, and a zillion of its friends are probably in your area, too. Scientists across several East Coast states are begging the public to kill these flashy bugs on sight, as 2022 shapes up to be a boom year for the destructive…