Pennsylvania Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding has announced that Bradford, Sullivan, Venango, and Wyoming Counties have been added to the Pennsylvania counties quarantined due to confirmed populations of the invasive spotted lanternfly. 

Redding is encouraging Pennsylvanians to look for and destroy lanternfly eggs prior to the spring hatch to help slow the destructive pest's spread. 

"As you clean up your yard or just enjoy beautiful Pennsylvania spring days, you can help keep lanternflies from becoming a summer nuisance and harming our valuable grape and nursery industries," Secretary Redding said. "Every spotted lanternfly egg mass you scrape and squash is 30-50 damage-causing insects that won’t hatch in May.”

The spotted lanternfly was first discovered in the U.S. in Berks County in 2014. 

While aggressive, coordinated efforts among states and industry have slowed its spread, the lanternfly continues to threaten valuable food and ornamental crops. The insect largely spreads by hitching rides on and in cars and other vehicles. 

In 2024, the department expanded the quarantine area by one county to 52 counties, although more than half of those counties have relatively small, isolated populations of lanternflies. 

The quarantine expansion comes after extensive surveys by the Pa. Dept. of Agriculture in concert with the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture in every Pennsylvania County, with a major emphasis on Erie County, where much of the state's $1.77 billion wine and grape industry in concentrated. 

The lanternfly quarantine prohibits moving lanternflies at any stage of life, as well as infested items like firewood, brush, and other debris.

It also requires those who operated businesses or travel for business in and out of quarantined counties to get a permit. 

More information on the spotted lanternfly can be found here.