It’s been ten years since the spotted lanternfly invaded Pennsylvania, and things are not as dire as thought when the invasive pest was first discovered in Berks County, writes Henry Savage for The Harrisburg Patriot-News.

Researchers feared that the bugs would devastate the state’s robust farming, lumber, and grape industries. A 2019 study projected annual damages of up to $324 million and potential losses of 2,800 jobs across the state’sagriculture industry.

The worst-case scenario predicted the damage to be as high as half a billion dollars annually.

Those concerns stemmed from the fact that the newly arrived insect had no natural predators in the United States and its affinity for fruit and timber trees.

A decade later, a clearer picture was formed of the damage wrought by lanternflies.

“The reality is that some of those assumptions have not played out as predicted,” said Brian Walsh, a Penn State lanternfly researcher.

While the bugs have turned out to be extremely disruptive to the wine and grape industry, with the heaviest hit vineyards losing up to 90 percent of their grapevines, they are not as damaging to hardwood trees as previously thought.

This is a huge win for Pennsylvania’s forest products industry, which generates around $39 billion per year.

Read more about the damage wrought by spotted lanternflies on Pennsylvania’s agriculture industry in The Harrisburg Patriot-News.