ables, fruit trees, ornamentals, shrubs, flowers, and gardens
||Spectracide Malathion Insect Spray
||flowers and bushes, fruit, and vegetables
||Garden Safe Multi-Purpose Garden Insect Killer, Natria Insect Mite and Disease Control
||vegetables, ornamentals, trees, shrubs, and flowers
||Bonide Neem Oil
||flowers, ornamental trees and shrubs, fruit, nuts, and vegetables
||Bonide Captain Jack’s Deadbug Brew
||outdoor ornamentals, fruit, and vegetables
||BioAdvance 3 in 1, Insect, Disease and Mite Control
||nonedible plants only, groundcovers, vines, ornamentals, shrubs, and trees
||Amdro Quick Kill Outdoor Insect Killer Concentrate
||lawns, trees and shrubs, roses, and flowers
*Recommended for organic production.
Note: The listing of products in this table is not an endorsement or specific recommendation of the product or the company. Other products with the same active ingredient should also work in the same way, but they may have different rates or formulations.
Some insecticides available at your local garden or hardware store can be used as soil drenches, bark sprays, or direct sprays. Direct sprays of contact insecticides are applied to surfaces where SLF feeds and walks, which can include the base of a tree, such as tree-of-heaven, where spotted lanternflies are abundant. They can also be applied directly to SLF nymphs and adults. Systemic insecticides can be applied using any of the methods above, but keep in mind that systemics take time to move into the tree. Systemic pesticides should only be applied to trees actively growing, so they should not be applied in late fall or winter. You may apply systemic insecticides using a soil drench around the base of the tree, as a bark spray on the trunk of the tree, or as a direct spray on the leaves of the tree. Systemic insecticides can also be injected into a tree, but this requires special equipment by tree care professionals. Bark sprays have been shown to work well for SLF control, but some of these products also require being mixed with a penetrant, which allows the insecticide to penetrate the bark and move into the tree. There are penetrants available to homeowners, including Pentra-Bark. You must read the label of the insecticide you purchase to determine whether it should be used as a soil drench, bark spray, or direct spray.
Soil drenches of systemic insecticides are applied into the soil around the trunk of the tree. The insecticide is taken up by the roots and moved into the rest of the tree. Ideally, soil drenches work best when applied in the early summer to trees that had high SLF populations in the past and are likely to have them again. To protect pollinators, soil drenches of systemic insecticides should be applied after a tree’s flowers have faded. Soil drenches and bark sprays may take several days or weeks to move within the entire tree, so you should not expect immediate results, as with contact sprays. Depending on the product and rates used, soil drenches, bark sprays, and injections have the advantage of longer residual activity (several weeks to several months) over contact insecticide applications.
In the table on the previous page, the name of the product is listed, along with the mode of exposure, legal use, activity ranking against SLF, and residual activity (how long it stays active). Specific products listed are not an endorsement. Please note that most currently available products are not registered for use on SLF. It is legal to use them as long as you follow the label instructions, but these products and/or their manufacturers are not liable for results when used against SLF. Research is ongoing to identify the insecticides that are most effective on SLF while posing the least risk to humans, pets, beneficial insects, and the environment. Additional field trials are being conducted to test the efficacy and residual activity of a wider range of the insecticides that are available to homeowners. We have not yet evaluated nontarget effects of listed insecticides on beneficial insects, including pollinators. We do not recommend treating your 