"They're back!" Lanternflies return to Rye.

Yes, as you may have witnessed, the beautiful pests we now know as Lanternflies are back and ready to party this summer. We were just alerted that there is a conversation happening on the Rye Moms Facebook Group regarding the baby Trees of Heaven along the wall of our property on Milton Road. They, too, are baaaack! If you don't know, the Tree of Heaven (aka Alanthus) is an invasive species of tree that is both poisonous to some humans and absolutely delicious to Lanternflies. Oh, and it smells nasty. To learn more on the importance of controlling invasive trees in order to control invasive bugs, check out this short video from Dave Jackson, a scientist at Penn State.

If you live in the Milton neighborhood, you witnessed our aggressive clearing of dead and invasive trees this past Spring. While it's no easy task, we are committed to returning the properties to their more native grandeur of the late-19th and early-20th centuries, before the Tree of Heaven and Black Locusts began taking over. This means a vigilant and continuous effort to identify and remove invasive trees over the course of the next few years. Eliminating these trees will also diminish the population of invasive insects that cherish their pungent bounty.

We are very strict about not using pesticides because of our proximity to the Blind Brook Estuary. Not to mention, pesticides are toxic to the good bugs and birds that fight alongside us against the two-pronged invasion. So far, soapy water seems to have a significant effect on eliminating the Lanternflies with as little damage as possible to the surrounding ecosystem.

If you would like to join us in this battle, please enlist via email to savethebird@icloud.com.

Thank you and good luck out there!