4 Bugs in Illinois You Should Kill ASAP if You See Them

If you see one of these invasive insects in Illinois, you should kill them immediately. The spotted lanternfly is still tops on the "kill asap" list, but here are the others that you should add to that list.

Illinois' Most Unwanted Insect

For people who are reluctant to kill bugs and insects, and you might be when you see how colorful this insect is, you need to know what they're capable of destroying.

The #1 insect on the KILL LIST is still the Spotted Lanternfly.

These flies don't fly very long distances before landing on your favorite tree, your deck, the kids' playground set, or your gazebo and do their own form of 'killing'.

They lay their egg masses on over 70 different types of plants; most at-risk include apple, apricot, peach, maple, oak, walnut, and cherry trees.

If you're a wine drinker, your motivation to kill the spotted lanternfly is that they like to destroy grapevines.

During spring lawn cleanup, keep your eyes peeled for spotted lanternfly egg masses. Each female is believed to lay at least two egg masses, which can produce 50 or so insects.

As with a couple of other insects on the KILL LIST, the spotted lanternfly poses no risk to humans but tons of risk in other areas.

4 Bugs You Should Kill ASAP When You See Them in Illinois

1. Spotted Lanternfly

MORE: Illinois Residents Will See More Cicadas if These 2 Things Are in Your Yard

2. Brown Marmorated Stink Bug

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These bugs will chew through fruit groves and ornamental plants.

3. Ticks

Anything to avoid a tick-borne illness, like Lyme disease or Rocky Mountain spotted fever.

There is a new kind of tick in Illinois, the Asian Longhorned Tick. Illinois is just the 20th state to discover the Asian Longhorned tick since it was introduced in the US in 2017.

MORE: 7 Plants That Will Repel Ticks From Your Illinois Yard

Asian long-horned ticks are light brown and very small. The fact that many are smaller than a sesame seed will make them tough to spot.

The tick is capable of carrying tick-borne diseases that affect cattle.

4. Asian Needle Ant

The world needs ants, but not these.

An ant with a stinger and venom sac... no thank you!

In rare instances, the ant’s venom can be lethal to people who have reactions to insect bites and stings.

Insects Waking Up Now In IL from Patch.com has more details on the bugs we should kill on sight.

MORE: 10 Most Annoying Pests You’ll Encounter in Illinois This Summer