Seminar to help Pike businesses get permits to travel in areas quarantined for spotted lanternfly

Pike County businesses, agencies, and organizations that travel in Pennsylvania counties quarantined for the invasive spotted lanternfly are required to have permits for their vehicles.

The quarantined counties are Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Chester, Dauphin, Delaware, Lancaster, Lebanon, Lehigh, Monroe, Montgomery, Northampton, Philadelphia, and Schuylkill. If you are a business, agency, or organization that travels through any of these counties, permits are required for your vehicles.

The Pike County Conservation District will host a seminar to make the permitting process easier. Kristen Cease from the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture will talk about the spotted lanternfly and the permit process, and administer the permit test that day. The class will be held from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 4, at the Wallenpaupack Environmental Learning Center, at 126 Lamberton Lane in Hawley.

There will be free coffee and donuts. Admission is free. To register email pikecd@pikepa.org or call 570-226-8220.

Pest devastates important crops

Spotted lanternfly is an invasive insect first introduced to the United States in Berks County, Pa., and has been spreading throughout eastern part of the state ever since. This pest is a generalist, meaning it can eat many different species of plants. So far, more than 70 plant and tree species have been identified as food sources for spotted lanternfly, many of which are important forestry and agricultural crops.

To contain the spread of this pest, the agriculture department instated a quarantine on the counties where spotted lanternfly has been officially detected. The spotted lanternfly can cling to cars, trucks, and other vehicles coming in and out of the quarantined counties, accelerating its spread.

As a part of this quarantine, businesses, agencies, and organizations located in working within the quarantine counties, or that travel through them, are required to have a permit for all of their vehicles. The agriculture department will conduct compliance and enforcement checks in conjunction with the Pennsylvania State Police.