Spotted Lanternfly Has Reached the Roanoke Valley

What started at the Pennsylvania border is now in your neighborhood. Roanoke, Salem, Blacksburg, Christiansburg, the spotted lanternfly is here, it’s growing, and this summer it’s active. Call Bug Man Exterminating, today, for fast, effective spotted lantern fly control.

Call Now — (540) 345-2200

This Isn’t a Northern Virginia Problem Anymore

For a few years, Roanoke Valley residents watched spotted lanternfly news roll in from up north and assumed it was someone else’s headache. Then, in the span of a single season, that changed.

Virginia Cooperative Extension agents in Roanoke fielded call after call from homeowners watching the pest colonize their trees. Virginia Tech entomologists in Blacksburg confirmed what everyone was starting to see: the spotted lanternfly has adapted to life in Southwest Virginia, and it’s not going anywhere.

60–70%
of Virginia now has confirmed spotted lanternfly populations
2018
Year SLF was first detected in Virginia. It has spread every year since.

What changed last year: In Roanoke County, spotted lanternfly went from a handful of sightings to trees and plants covered with the pest — almost overnight. The Virginia Department of Agriculture confirmed populations so widespread that the state’s formal quarantine was lifted in March 2025. Not because the problem was solved — but because it had spread too far to contain.

Confirmed in These Southwest Virginia Areas

Roanoke City
Roanoke County
Salem
Montgomery County
Radford
Bedford County
Botetourt County
Carroll County
Wythe County
Rockbridge County
Blacksburg
Christiansburg

Source: Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS), 2025–2026. Populations are actively expanding.

What Are You Looking At?

The spotted lanternfly is one of the easier invasive pests to identify (once you know the life stages). It looks different depending on when in the year you spot it. Here’s what to look for in each season.

Fall — Spring
Egg Mass
October – April

Looks like dried mud or putty. Gray-brown smears about an inch long. Found on tree bark, wooden fence posts, patio furniture, stone walls, and even car bumpers. Each mass holds 30-50 eggs.

Check the rough bark of silver maples and Tree of Heaven, along fence lines, and on any hard surface near the woods.

Spring
Early Nymph
April – June

Wingless, about a quarter-inch long. Black body with bright white spots arranged in rows. Fast-moving and often found feeding on young stems, leaves, and low-growing plants.

Easy to miss individually, but they gather in numbers. Check the undersides of leaves on young trees and along shrub stems.

Summer
Late Nymph
July – August

Still wingless but now larger, over half an inch. The black-and-white pattern now shows vivid red patches across the body. Highly mobile; found aggregating on tree trunks in large groups.

This is the stage most commonly reported on tree trunks in Roanoke and Salem neighborhoods. Hard to miss once populations are established.

Late Summer — Fall
Adult
August – November

Roughly an inch long. Mottled gray-brown forewings with black spots, brilliant scarlet hindwings with black spots and white bars. The hind wings are only visible in flight. At rest, the bug looks spotted gray-brown.

Unmistakable when the wings open. Adults aggregate in large numbers in late fall, especially on Tree of Heaven, silver maple, and fruit trees.

Not sure what you are looking at? Spotted lanternflies are hitchhikers — they lay egg masses on vehicles and outdoor gear. If you have been to the Shenandoah Valley, the I-81 corridor, or an area with confirmed populations, check the undercarriage and bumpers of your vehicle when you return home.

Request a Free Inspection

Pretty Bug. Real Problem.

Spotted lanternflies don’t bite or sting people, and they’re not structurally damaging to your home. But the damage they do to your property, your trees, and your outdoor living spaces is real, and it compounds quickly when populations go untreated.

Your Trees and Landscaping

The spotted lanternfly feeds by piercing bark and sucking sap from the cambium layer of trees. Its preferred hosts in Southwest Virginia include silver maple, black walnut, wild grapevines, and the prolific Tree of Heaven, which grows along nearly every roadside in the Roanoke Valley. Repeated feeding weakens trees, leaving them vulnerable to disease, secondary pest infestation, and eventual die-off.

Ornamental maples and established shade trees that took decades to grow are particularly at risk on residential lots. Young fruit trees may not survive a heavy infestation.

Gardens, Fruit Trees & Vines

Grapevines, hops, apple trees, peach trees, blueberry bushes, and ornamental plantings in your yard are all documented feeding hosts. Virginia’s wine country extends into Bedford and Franklin Counties — and the vineyards there are watching closely. Homeowners with backyard gardens and young fruit trees face the same risk on a smaller scale. SLF stress can set back years of establishment growth in a single season.

The pest was originally a major concern for commercial agriculture. In residential SW Virginia, backyard orchards and vegetable garden trellises are seeing the same kind of pressure.

Your Outdoor Living Spaces

As spotted lanternflies feed, they excrete a sticky substance called honeydew that coats everything beneath the affected tree — your deck, patio furniture, children’s play equipment, and vehicles parked nearby. That honeydew ferments in Southwest Virginia’s summer heat, develops a black sooty mold, and draws in secondary pests: wasps, yellow jackets, ants, and hornets. An infestation can make your outdoor spaces genuinely unpleasant to spend time in.

Multiple Roanoke Valley homeowners last season reported a sticky black film on patio furniture and decks beneath heavily infested trees — within weeks of populations arriving.

A Word on Southwest Virginia’s Landscape

The wooded lots, mature hardwood corridors, and mixed-use landscape of the Blue Ridge foothills create ideal habitat for the spotted lanternfly. Tree of Heaven, SLF’s most preferred host, grows aggressively along I-81, I-581, the Roanoke River Greenway, and throughout the New River Valley. That means the pest has no shortage of launching points into neighborhoods, and properties bordering wooded areas or roadside growth are at the front of the spread. Dense residential neighborhoods in Roanoke City, Salem, and the Cave Spring corridor are seeing the same pressure as more rural properties in Botetourt and Floyd counties.

How Bug Man Handles Spotted Lanternfly

We’ve been fielding spotted lanternfly calls across Roanoke and Montgomery Counties since populations took off. Our approach is thorough, targeted, and built around how this pest actually behaves in Southwest Virginia (not a generic protocol copied from a manual).

01

Property Inspection

Your technician walks the full property to map the situation: host trees present (Tree of Heaven, silver maple, black walnut, wild grape), active nymph and adult populations, egg masses on hard surfaces, and areas of heaviest feeding pressure.

We identify the problem completely before recommending a treatment.

02

Targeted Treatment

We apply an exterior perimeter barrier treatment using EPA-approved insecticides consistent with Virginia state agricultural recommendations, including bifenthrin-class products proven effective against spotted lanternfly nymphs and adults. Where appropriate, direct tree treatments are added for high-pressure host trees on your property.

Treatment is targeted. We protect your yard without unnecessary broad applications.

03

Egg Mass Removal

Every egg mass left on your property in the fall is next spring’s infestation. Our technicians locate and destroy egg masses on trees, deck railings, fence posts, outbuildings, and other hard surfaces. We’ll show you exactly what to look for so you can stay on top of it between our seasonal visits.

Fall egg removal is critical. Don’t skip it if you want to start the season ahead.

04

Year-Round Protection

Spotted lanternfly is a year-round presence in Southwest Virginia. Our Four Seasons Pest Control plan builds SLF monitoring and treatment into every scheduled visit — active-season treatments in spring and summer, egg mass work in fall, and monitoring through winter. No gaps, no scrambling when populations spike in July.

Four Seasons customers are covered without having to call and schedule each time.

Already a Four Seasons Customer?

Spotted lanternfly treatment and monitoring can be incorporated into your existing plan. Give us a call or mention it on your next service visit and your technician will add a property assessment to their next scheduled stop. No separate appointment needed in most cases.

Learn About the Four Seasons Plan →

Spotted Lanternfly Q&A

These are the questions we hear most often from homeowners in the Roanoke Valley and New River Valley.

Spotted Lanternfly Season Is Active Right Now.

Populations across Roanoke County, Montgomery County, and the surrounding valley are growing year over year, season over season. The window you’re in right now is one of the most effective times to treat. Our technicians are local, licensed, and have been working in this landscape for years. They know the pest, they know Southwest Virginia, and they’ll get out to your property fast.

Serving: Roanoke · Salem · Vinton · Blacksburg · Christiansburg · Radford · Bedford County · Botetourt County · Floyd County · Carroll County · Wythe County

Get Your Free Inspection →

Or call us directly

(540) 345-2200

No contracts required · Free estimate before any work