Possible Use Found for the Spotted Lanternfly

Their poop make passible honey: A possible use for invasive spotted lanternflies? Food for bees, Ohio expert says

Dr. Tracy Farone is a professor of biology at Grove City College who recently earned a certification in honey bee medicine (Cert HbV) from the Honey Bee Veterinary Consortium. She’s a beekeeper herself and has noticed an interesting dynamic between honey bees and spotted lanternflies.

“With the lantern flies coming in and presenting themselves in big numbers, the honeybees are attracted to this, and they’re picking it up and they’re incorporating it in their honey,” Farone said.

What attracts the bees to the lanternflies is their “honeydew,” a polite term for their excrement, a sweet liquid containing the lanternfly’s waste. That liquid will accumulate on surfaces below where they feed, like on trees and leaves, which can lead to the growth of sooty mold.

“So the good thing about the lanternflies is they’re providing an extra source for the honey bees that they wouldn’t necessarily have,” Farone explained. “Sometimes, fall can be pretty scarce if it’s dry, particularly this year. So in some ways it gives the honeybee something to do, and something to collect, and something to replace the nectar that might be lost in a drought so that they can have stores for the winter.”

But using that honeydew in place of nectar from flowers does impact the honey produced by the bees, both in flavor and color. One local beekeeper who tasted honey made with that honeydew described the taste as “almost smoky.” It has also been described as having a smoky odor, according to PennState Extension, and is not as sweet as other kinds of honey.

For some, there may appear to be a lingering aftertaste to honey made with the help of lanternfly honeydew, but people have eaten it “with no ill effects,” Shannon Powers, press secretary for the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, previously told Nexstar.

“There’s different honeys from different flowers, different times of the year, different locations around the world. And you can have honeys that are clear in color to almost black in color, and then all the colors in between … and the flavors will be very different depending on [the sources],” Farone said. “So this is a new thing.”

Farone said it can be looked at from two perspectives: “tainted” lanternfly honey, or perhaps a marketing opportunity for a new type of honey.

Recent distribution of Spotted Lanternfly infestations

"Eaten it with no ill effects" is not exactly high praise. 

Reportedly, Spotted Lanternflies have been found in Calvert County, but I haven't seen one yet. But it seems like it's only a matter of time. Maybe we can convince liberals that they're the bug they're meant to eat.