4/25/2019
During the spring 2019 semester, our group was tasked with the Glenside Scrap and Tape EACAP project. Glenside is an elementary school located in Reading, PA. We worked with Melissa Boyer, the school nurse who was very helpful throughout the process of the project. We met with her to discuss the task at hand and to provide insight that she found and gave us very good ideas. One thursday morning, our group went to Glenside with Ziploc bags, credit cards, some rubbing alcohol, and duct tape. We went around to twenty trees located around the perimeter of the school property and scraped the trees of Lanternfly eggs. We scraped the eggs using a credit card so the tree bark would not be damaged and made sure to get them into the Ziploc bag. Inside the bag was rubbing alcohol, so when the eggs entered the bag, they landed in the alcohol and died. This is a key thing to do because they will still hatch if just scraped off the tree. After all the trees were scraped, we began the taping portion. They do market Lanternfly tape, but it is very pricey and many sources claim duct tape works as well. We started taping the trees about three feet up from the ground and wrapped the tree about three to four times around in order to make a wider base. This is important because when the eggs hatch, they fall off the tree and eventually climb back up the tree. By taping the trunk, the Lanternflies will climb up but stick to the tape and eventually die. This is the equivalent to a glue trap for mice or ants that would be placed on the ground. One thing that would be changed and we have noted is the timing of the tape. The eggs hatch in May but the semester is over by then so because of a time limit we had to tape earlier. Because it was still colder out the tape peeled a bit in a few places but it was a learning experience that we now have for future reference.
The semester is finally coming to a close and it was a fun learning experience for our whole group when working on our EACAP project. We enjoyed doing our part to help the community and preserve Berks county when fighting the Spotted Lanternfly. I think we can say that as a whole, we enjoyed the service aspect of the project. We enjoyed working together and being outdoors to help out Glenside Elementary. It was overall a good experience and we all learned a lot about how we can give back while learning how to stop the invasive Spotted Lanternfly.