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The lanternflies are here. Is it okay to stomp them?

A spotted lanternfly stands in front of the skyline of New York City in August 2023, in Weehawken, New Jersey. | Gary Hershorn/Getty Images Last summer, I was standing on a block near my house when I saw a very distinctive bug skittering up a tree trunk. It had a polka-dotty wing, with red underneath. It was, unmistakably, an invasive spotted lanternfly. These are all over Brooklyn — they took off here around 2020 and 2021. And I knew what I was supposed to do in this situation: kill it. Key takeaways Ordinary people have been told to kill the invasive spotted lanternfly, and...