Overall this project has been a memorable and rich academic experience. It was a very good way for us to research the lantern flies in depth as well as to help play a part in stopping them. We all learned so many things about the spotted lanternfly such as breeding cycles and egg masses. We also learned what we can all do to take action to help defeat this invasive species such as tree banding and checking belongings to ensure the lantern flies do not spread. During this project, we worked with John Rost of the PSU Berks Greenhouse. He acted as our mentor and organized the tasks that we needed to complete for our EACAP project. In regards to what we actually did during our project, our team taped 17 maple trees and 3 willow trees around campus. Over the month of October we counted the lantern flies on the tape as well as the trees. We then killed them. We noticed that each week there would be less and less lanternflies as we approached the winter months. During the first team meeting there had been a swarm of lantern flies on the trees and the tape. When we met during our last team meeting however, there had barely been any lantern flies left on the trees or the tape. It was very fascinating to see how drastic the changes were in our research. Our message as a team would be for everyone to help play a role in defeating this invasive species and to help spread the message among their communities, as the consequences are far too severe to be neglected.

(This was post was from an earlier date, before our first team activity) As a team, we met with John Rost of the PSU Berks Greenhouse. We discussed breeding cycles of the lanternflies, their origins, as well as what we will be doing in our research project/ our timeline. We were tasked with trapping lanternflies and recording their numbers over the weeks. We were also given supplies. Overall we are looking forward to understanding more about the lanternflies and what can be done to stop their detrimental effects on the environment.

Earlier today, the Lantern Flyerfighters set up tape traps around campus on 17 maple trees and 3 willow trees to trap the lanternflies we will use in our research data.

We are the Lantern Flyerfighters. We will study the lanternfly. Our team consists of William Graybill, Youssef Elmontacir, and Veronica Maryanski. Will is a senior business major, Youssef is sophomore SRA major, and Veronica is a sophomore education major. We will work with the PSU Berks Greenhouse. We’re looking forward to learning more about the invasive lanternfly and what can be done to solve their issues.