“You don’t see any of them in the projects. “There is a lot especially around this building 400,” she said, gesturing to 400 West 61st St, a skyscraper with reflective windows. The spotted lanternflies are a major threat to native plants in the area. “Yesterday I was screaming when they were flying all over the place near me. For me, it was a victory.”ĭonna Matthews, a 56-year-old postal worker in the neighborhood, said she’s been inundated by the bugs on the job. They don’t have complex thoughts and feelings. “I killed one outside of Starbucks this morning,” she said. We were joking that we should keep a running tally.” “We all see them so often and stomp them so often. “Over the past couple of days maybe 10,” said Jenna Tseng, 21-year-old employee of the gym on West End Avenue near West 61st Street. Outside Central Rock Gym on the Upper West Side, six crushed lanternflies laid dead on the pavement Wednesday - and workers inside said they’re taking no prisoners. New Yorkers have taken to squishing the tiny pests at the advice of officials, who recommend killing them to save crops in the region. “The biggest concern is transporting them to other areas where they are not yet established.” “Reports have increased significantly in the past month as the adults have matured, since they are larger and more active than the nymph stages of the life cycle,” Leeser told The Post. Jacob Leeser, of Cornell University’s NYS Integrated Pest Management Program, said reports of the insects have skyrocketed in the city in recent weeks. The bugs become larger and brighter in late August. The lusty lanternflies have been spotted hunting for love on the window sills of gleaming Manhattan skyscrapers, lounging on wooden telephone poles and prowling Central Park for hookups, Ware and other experts said. “They’re flitting around, jumping and gliding. August is a busy time for them they’re mating and laying eggs before winter comes and are particularly active this time of year.”īy late August, the horndog bugs - which are native to China and Southeast Asia and bear black spots and gray wings - have grown bigger and redder in color, making them more visible on their sultry pursuits. “People are noticing them in huge numbers,” Ware told The Post. New York City has seen an increase in the invasive spotted lanternfly due to the insect’s mating season starting up. The invasive insects - which ravage everything from fruit trees to grapevines and vegetable gardens - have grown to adults and are swarming the city in an effort to get laid, said Jessica Ware, an associate curator of invertebrate zoology at the American Museum of Natural History. The Big Apple’s spotted lanternfly invasion is getting worse - with more sightings of the plant-destroying pests as their mating season revs up in the urban jungle, entomologists and residents said Wednesday. These sex-crazed bugs are not buzzing off!
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