While on a recent walk around downtown Bethesda, I couldn’t help but stop when I saw about a dozen spotted lanternflies fluttering about on a sidewalk on Wisconsin Avenue. In our area, spotted lanternflies (Lycorma deliculata) are considered invasive. They are native to eastern Asia and are harmless to humans but cause damage to trees and crops by sucking sap from trunks and stems, according to the Maryland Department of Agriculture. In their adult form, the gray- and red-spotted bugs are characterized as planthoppers that much more than 70 species of crops and plants such as grapes, red maple trees and weeping willows. The first confirmed sighting of a spotted lanternfly in Maryland was reported in October 2018.