COLUMBUS, Ohio (WSYX) — The streets of Columbus are witnessing a growing invasion of spotted lanternflies, with their numbers increasing significantly.
The Ohio Department of Agriculture reported 2,100 sightings of the insect in 2025, a sharp rise from 1,400 last year.
Jonathan Shields, the Spotted Lanternfly Program Administrator at the Ohio Department of Agriculture, explained the surge. “Populations are building, especially in the Columbus area, Toledo area, Cleveland area, kind of the bigger, you know, the bigger cities,” he said. “That’s where there’s a lot more transportation corridors and spotted lanternfly has expanded kind of along those transportation corridors like railroads and highways and those kinds of things for a number of reasons.”…