Brad Line, Head of Product and Solutions Management at Collegeville-based SEI, created an app that gamifies the killing of spotted lanternflies, writes Katie Park for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Line was prompted to make the app by his two sons, Greyson and Nolan. They wanted to turn the bug-squashing experience into something more fun.

The idea was simple: kill a lanternfly, take photographic evidence, and post it. The most avid participants would then get their names displayed on the leaderboard, billed as “Today’s Top Squishers.” Users also have the option to mark the location of their kill on a map.

In six weeks, Line designed the app and a developer in Pakistan produced it. On the day it was published on Apple’s App Store, it was downloaded by 130 people. The following day, 160 new users joined them.

Line’s app is free to download. He said his only goal was to document the killing of the pest that has rapidly spread around the state. The pest is threatening Pennsylvania’s $18 billion grape, lumber, and landscape industries.

“I’m not looking to make a penny for it,” Line said. “It’s just for fun, and just to fight this thing.”

Read more about the app at The Philadelphia Inquirer by clicking here.