I visited Hawk Mountain in eastern Pennsylvania in September 2022. Spotted lanternflies were zooming through the air at one of the open, rocky lookouts on top of the mountain that afternoon. The lanternflies appeared to be easy pickins' had there been any purple martins in the area. For you colony managers in the current range of the spotted lanternfly which includes parts of Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, Delaware, and southern New York, have you observed martins feeding on the lanternflies?
The story at the link below suggests that lanternflies are more palatable to birds if the bugs are not feeding on the non-native tree-of-heaven. So if tree-of-heaven is present on your property, removing it might improve bird predation on these insects.
https://vista.today/2024/12/birds-penns ... ternflies/
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