Loudoun's Scrape For The Grape Volunteers Honored, Repeat Event Eyed For 2025
LOUDOUN COUNTY, VA — As the invasive spotted lanternflies emerge from eggs and threaten the wine industry and other local agriculture, volunteers who made a dent in the insect’s population received recognition.
Last week, the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors presented a resolution to honor volunteers with the first Scrape for the Grape event. The March 30 volunteer event organized by a coalition of homeowners association called Loudoun Invasive Removal Alliance drew hundreds of volunteers at wineries and other designated locations. Organizers counted at least 16,798 spotted lanternfly egg masses scraped from trees, and each egg mass could contain 30 to 50 eggs. With an assumption that half of the eggs were female, a potential 1 million potential spotted lanternflies were prevented from coming to Loudoun County.
“The main thing is, when you think about this whole thing, about invasives, it’s all about awareness,” Loudoun Invasive Removal Alliance president Mike Littman told the board. “People just don’t know about it right now, the plants, yet, it’s causing as much destruction as climate change and other things right now it’s ranked that high. So I can’t think of a better campaign to create awareness initially in the county.
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Supervisors Sylvia Glass (D-Broad Run) and Laura TeKrony (D-Little River), who were among the Scrape for the Grape volunteers, presented the board’s resolution to volunteers.
“I actually really enjoyed it. I felt like I was accomplishing something for the community. And I think the turnout was wonderful that day,” said TeKrony.
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The spotted lanternfly is an invasive insect from Asia that first was seen in the U.S. in 2014 in Pennsylvania. Since then, it has spread to several other states, including Virginia starting in 2018. Some Virginia counties are under a quarantine, which means businesses must inspect goods to ensure they don’t contain spotted lanternflies. Loudoun County is not under the quarantine, but neighboring Prince William County, Clarke County and some other localities are.
SEE ALSO: Spotted Lanternflies Are Back: What To Do If You See Them In VA
The spotted lanternfly can pose risks to crops like grapes, apples, peaches and hops as well as become a nuisance to residents in large numbers, according to the Virginia Cooperative Extension. Its preferred host is the Tree of Heaven, which produces a substance that may deter spotted lanternflies’ natural predators like birds. In addition to scraping spotted lanternfly egg masses, volunteers marked Tree of Heaven for removal.
Scrape for the Grape came as Visit Loudoun is promoting the Loudoun County wine industry’s 40th anniversary. Beth Erickson, president and CEO of Visit Loudoun, told the board the Scrape for the Grape effort was coordinated in nine weeks. The main organizers were Erickson, Loudoun Invasive Removal Alliance’s Littman, Bill Hatch of Zephaniah Farm Vineyard, and Beth Sastre of Loudoun County’s Virginia Cooperative Extension.
According to the board’s resolution, Scrape for the Grape is expected to return in 2025. The Loudoun Invasive Removal Alliance also focuses on addressing impacts of invasive plant species, such as the Callery Pear/Bradford Pear tree.
Board of Supervisors Chair Phyllis Randall (D-At Large) pointed to research showing Thomas Jefferson may have first brought the Tree of Heaven to the U.S. She said residents today may have invasive plant species because of their appearance and praised the Loudoun Invasive Removal Alliance for informing the community about invasives.
“A lot of the invasive species we look at, they are gorgeous, and until you came along and started talking about what invasive species were, I don’t think anyone thought one thing about them,” said Randall. “They were pretty. They were easy to plant. And so people did, but the fact that the invasive species brings invasive bugs and other things that are that our ecosystem cannot handle, we have learned so much over just the past year because of what you all are doing.”
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