We Spotted our First Spotted Lanternfly in our Vineyard

An article came out in the Hartford Courant on September 7 about the spotted lanternfly and I was going to blog about it and then we saw our first spotted lanternfly in our vineyard.

We've been hearing from customers that come into our winery that they have had spotted lanternfly where they live in Connecticut. One person from Norwich said that she catches the spotted lanternflies with a vacuum cleaner and then uses soapy water to kill them. We had another customer recently whose daughter got married in New Haven. Their wedding venue had spotted lanternfly and one landed on the bride's gown!
The spotted lanternfly is native to China and East Asia. The first occurence of the spotted lanternfly was in Pennsylvannia in 2014. The preferred host of the spotted lanternfly is the tree of heaven where the insect feeds on the sap of the tree of heaven. In the United States, they feed on the sap of more than 70 plant species, especially grape vines. Since the spotted lanternfly is not native to the United States, there is no known predator but wasps such as the yellow jacket like to eat the spotted lanternflies. Praying mantis will also feed on them and birds will occasionally eat them although they don’t taste great to birds.
A few days have passed since I started writing this blogpost. We have been busy in the vineyard racing to get our nets unfurled over all of our rows of grapes. We are finally seeing the end of this task. Today, while working in the vineyard. my husband spotted a jumping spider feeding on a spotted lanternfly. He called me over to take a look and we both took pictures, while trying not to disturb the spider. Here are pictures of what we saw:

It turns out that the jumping spider is a very good thing to have in the vineyard. Almost 10 years ago, in 2017, I blogged about a close encounter that I had with a jumping spider. The jumping spider, has four pairs of eyes, chelicerae, or "jaws", which in the case of the jumping spider contains venom. The venom is injected into it's prey and once immobilized, the spider feasts on the insides of it's prey. I believe that we were witnessing this jumping spider feeding on it's prey. While we really wanted to take a video, we let the spider feast in the privacy and comfort of the grape canopy!
References:
1. Stephen Underwood and Kaitlyn Keegan, "Spotted lanternflies are cause for concern for CT vineyard owners. Here’s how they’re fighting back", Hartford Courant, September 7, 2026.