Learn as much as you can about it

In 2022 I had the opportunity to see it first hand in Toledo. And again the amount of honeydew and black sooty mold were noticeable. People won’t like it if they have that in their landscape!

SLF is a species of planthopper with piercing, sucking mouthparts. They insert their mouthparts into the plant and feed on the sap. According to BugDoc, Dr. According to Dave Shetlar, an entomologist at Ohio State University, they don’t process the sap quickly, so it flows quickly through their bodies and “squirts” out of their butts.

I can confirm that; I stood under a tree full of SLF in Toledo and could see the sap glistening in the sun as it “rained.” The sunglasses I was wearing at the time had resin on the lens.

I didn’t stay there long enough for sooty mold to form. Sooty mold is a fungus that develops on honeydew. It is black and everything under an SLF food tree is covered in honeydew and the resulting black, sooty mold.

We were in a house in Toledo where there was a big maple tree. You could see the adults all over the trunk. There was a car parked under the tree covered in honeydew and sooty mold.

There were also lots of wasps on the car. The sweet, sticky honeydew attracts these and other wasps and bees.

The good news is that SLF doesn’t kill trees. They are rather annoying. The bad news is that they can be devastating to grapes and some other agricultural crops if not kept under control.

Regular feeding of grapes affects the health of the plant and leads to death. Ohio grape growers pay particular attention to SLF and spray it to eliminate it from orchards. SLF also likes hops.

While this won’t kill maple trees, it can potentially reduce the amount of sap. Further research is needed to determine the full impact on the maple syrup industry.

I asked BugDoc if he thinks this pest could follow the path of the Japanese beetle. As you have observed, in some years the populations are high and in others they are non-existent. He thought that this could be what we will see later with SLF.

What can you do now? Learn as much as you can about the pest, including identifying its preferred tree (tree of heaven) and egg masses.

If you find an egg mass, report it to the Ohio Department of Agriculture on their website. If it is found in a county where SLF has not been confirmed, they must first confirm it before quarantining a county.

Photo credit: Contributed

Photo credit: Contributed