Is the spotted lanternfly actually in Georgia?
Yes. The first live population in the state was found in Fulton County in October 2024, and the Georgia Department of Agriculture confirmed it with federal APHIS inspectors the following month.
Since then there have been further positive reports, including DeKalb County in 2025. As of now the known presence is in the metro Atlanta area rather than up here in Floyd County.
That is worth stating plainly, because the honest position for a Rome tree service is that this is a pest to watch for and report, not one we are pulling off trees every week. Georgia is one of roughly twenty states where it is now established somewhere.
What does a spotted lanternfly look like?
It changes appearance completely through the year, which is why people miss it.
- Egg masses, autumn through spring. Inch-long gray patches that look like a smear of dried mud, laid on tree trunks and also on anything flat and outdoors: fence posts, trailers, firewood, patio furniture.
- Early nymphs, spring. Small, black, covered in bright white spots. They do not look like the adult at all.
- Late nymphs, early summer. Bigger, and now red with black and white markings. Quite striking, and the stage most people notice first.
- Adults, mid summer into autumn. About an inch long at rest, with gray forewings covered in black spots. When they open up there is a flash of bright red on the hindwings.
They are planthoppers, so they jump strongly rather than fly well. A large insect that hops away hard when you approach is a reasonable prompt to look closer.
Which trees does it go for?
Its clear favorite is tree of heaven, an invasive itself, which is common along roadsides, fence lines and disturbed ground across Northwest Georgia. If you have tree of heaven on the property, that is where to look first.
Beyond that it feeds on a wide range, with maple, black walnut, willow, river birch and grapevine all on the list. It is a sap feeder, piercing bark and young growth rather than chewing leaves, so you will not see the ragged holes that other pests leave.
Does it actually kill trees?
Mostly no, and this is where a lot of coverage overstates it.
On established hardwoods, heavy feeding is a stress rather than a death sentence. What it does is weaken a tree that may already be dealing with drought or root damage, which matters because stress is what opens the door to the things that do kill trees.
The real agricultural damage is to grapevines, which it can kill outright, and to hops and some stone fruit. If you grow grapes, this is a different order of concern than if you have a maple in the front yard.
The other genuine nuisance is honeydew. Large populations coat everything underneath in sticky excretion, sooty mold grows on it, and decks, cars and patio furniture end up black.
What should you do if you find one?
Report it. Georgia has an active reporting program through the Department of Agriculture and gainvasives.org, and early reports in a new county are genuinely useful to the people tracking the spread.
If you can, photograph it before anything else. An identification from a photo is far more useful than a description, and there are look-alikes at the nymph stage.
Scrape egg masses into a bag with alcohol or hand sanitizer rather than just knocking them off the trunk, since a mass on the ground can still hatch. And check what you are moving: this insect spreads most effectively by hitching a ride on vehicles, trailers and firewood.
Where do we fit in?
Narrowly, and it is worth being clear about the limits.
We do not spray, inject or treat for insects. That is licensed pesticide applicator work and we do not hold ourselves out as doing it.
What we can do is identify what is on your trees, take out tree of heaven where it is acting as a host and you want it gone, and deal with any tree that has declined to the point of being a hazard. If a tree has reached that stage, our tree removal and leaning tree warning signs pages cover what that looks like.