The invasive red-and-white spotted lanternfly has now spread to more than half of Virginia’s counties and cities, after years of creeping along the state’s major transportation corridors. Officials are ramping up research to determine how to best target the pests and provide vineyards with clear guidelines on when to spray pesticides.

The brightly colored insects can now be seen lazily flapping through much of the Piedmont and Shenandoah Valley. Hitchhikers from Asia, they first arrived in Virginia in 2018.

Today, they are most commonly found near railways and other transportation routes. The state once tried quarantining infested counties and inspecting shipments for eggs to stop the spread, but as the lanternflies became more pervasive those measures were repealed in March of this year

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