'Spot, squish, report': Officials urging vigilance as destructive species heads north

They have a propensity to proliferate and a fondness for grapes, and while the distinctive red and white-spotted lanternfly may look beautiful, officials are urging vigilance as the invasive species tracks north.

“Right now, in our industry, everyone has their antenna up about this particular insect,” says Matt Cassavaugh, the co-founder of 20deep Winery in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York, where the bug was spotted for the first time earlier this summer.

“Right now, I haven't assessed any actual real immediate threat in our vineyard,” he told CTV National News. “But we know it could be a potential problem, so we have trained our staff to keep an eye out for it.”

Native to parts of Asia, the spotted lanternfly was first detected at a Pennsylvania landscaping company that imported stones in 2014. Since then, it has migrated to at least 17 U.S. states, wreaking havoc on crops.

“They really like to swarm, and for whatever reason, on grape vines in particular,” says Emily Posteraro, an expert with the Invasive Species Centre, a Canadian non-profit that tracks pests. While the spotted lanternfly is known to feast on nearly 100 different types of crops, Posteraro says they are particularly drawn to grapes.

“That feeding behaviour really weakens the vine so much it not only impacts the fruit, but it can also kill the vine outright,” she says.

While spotted lanternflies are not yet in Canada, there have been unofficial sightings and the government of Ontario, the federal government and various industry groups are preparing for its arrival.

“Monitoring is really the big thing right now,” says Debbie Zimmerman, president of the Ontario Grape Growers Association. “We have traps out in different areas… we are hoping with the monitoring system we have, that we will be able to act very fast in terms of isolating and dealing with it,” she says.

“The key is spread -- if it starts to spread and we lose control... we are in a worse situation than we could have been.”

Zimmerman says growers have been given detailed information about what to look for in their fields and what to do if they spot one of the bugs. The Ontario grape growing industry has an estimated economic impact of more than $5 billion dollars and vigilance is key.

“If we don't get to it early enough then we have a problem,” Zimmerman says.

Canada has the benefit of looking to the United States to see what has worked in terms of controlling the spread of the bug, which proliferates easily in the wild. While the species has migrated, containment efforts have been successful in slowing down its spread.

But the risk to crops is real. The hardest-hit vineyards in Pennsylvania have lost as much as 90 per cent of their vines.

But until the spotted lantern fly arrives, vintners like Matt Cassavaugh can only watch and wait.

“Up until the point that we are actually dealing with it, I don't think we know the extent of the damage it can cause and what we are up against,” he says.

Officials are urging people to be on the lookout, and to follow the mantra: spot it, squish it and report it.