PITTSBURGH — If the scourge of the spotted lanternfly plays out as it did in Philadelphia and Harrisburg, Pittsburgh is set for another invasion this year of the icky, sap-sucking invasive insects.

Allegheny County residents for the second year in a row reported the highest number of lanternfly sightings in the state last year with 20,716, almost half the number of total reports in the state, according to data released to the Post-Gazette from the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.

The pesky bug could have peaked or might peak this year in Allegheny County, according to experts.

Lanternfly infestations have slowed to a trickle in areas once inundated in the eastern part of the state, including Philadelphia and Harrisburg.

"Pittsburgh folks, hang in there and hopefully the lanternfly will follow the same pattern," said Brian Walsh, lanternfly researcher and horticulture educator at Penn State Extension.

"It could be that you have another year or two before it completely peaks," he said. Or, numbers could decrease this year.

Walsh was near ground zero in 2017 when lanternfly populations exploded in the state at the border of Montgomery and Berks counties.

"People in the area were making references to biblical plagues at the time," he noted. "We see them here now, but they're nothing like they had been at their peak," Walsh said.

Spotted lanternfly populations typically surge for three to five years and then fall off, he said.

However, the number of lanternflies moving into and attacking vineyards in the fall remains stronger than in the surrounding areas in the years past the peak, he added.

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