Pennsylvania photographer captures the horror of invasive spotted lanternfly

• Rachel McDevitt/StateImpact Pennsylvania
  BioRecent Stories

  

  I report on energy and the environment for StateImpact Pennsylvania at WITF.
  
  My work focuses on responses and solutions to climate change in the state legislature and communities around the state. I trace my interest in these issues back to my time as a Girl Scout and this episode of Rocko’s Modern Life.
  
  I look forward to winter just for the chance to ski a few times each season. I try to keep myself from doom-scrolling on my phone by keeping my hands busy knitting and learning to play the piano.
  
  I grew up in Cambria County, Pa. and graduated from Temple University. I started at WITF just after Christmas in 2014.

 Matt Rourke / AP Photo

This Thursday, Sept. 19, 2019, photo shows a spotted lanternfly at a vineyard in Kutztown, Pa. The spotted lanternfly has emerged as a serious pest since the federal government confirmed its arrival in southeastern Pennsylvania five years ago this week.

(Harrisburg) — This Halloween, a Pennsylvania photographer and filmmaker is offering a public service announcement about a frightful creature threatening the commonwealth.

In the spoof horror movie trailer, a full moon rises over dark woods as swarms of winged insects fly across the sky and a shadowy figure crunches over the corpses of dead spotted lanternflies. A question appears on screen: How many did you kill today?

Mike Allebach, owner of Allebach Photography, said he was inspired to make “The Spotted Lanternfly Massacre” after finding them inside his Montgomery County studio last month.

“We were just stomping on these things outside and it kind of hit me, like, what if stomping on these was a horror movie?” Allebach said. “And then I just had to run with it.”

The spotted lanternfly threaten to damage the state’s $18 billion grape, tree fruit, and timber industries.

As scary as that is to some, Allebach said there is also hope, as people band together to try to rid their communities of the pest.

“Everywhere I was going that week, everybody’s goal was to kill these things,” he said. “It was like we were living in our own horror film right now with these critters.”

Allebach says the movie is a lighthearted way to raise more awareness about the invasive bug.

The video has been viewed on YouTube more than 17,000 times.

The spotted lanternfly first appeared in Berks County in 2014 and has since expanded to 14 Pennsylvania counties, including Dauphin, Lancaster, Lebanon, and Schuylkill.

A collection of interviews, photos, and music videos, featuring local musicians who have stopped by the WITF performance studio to share a little discussion and sound. Produced by WITF’s Joe Ulrich.

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