2024 marked the third year in a row that the office of the state entomologist has invited everyday Kentuckians to help it monitor invasive insects. If they take hold, some of the bugs could cause billions of dollars of damage to the state’s forests and crops.
The citizen science program through the Kentucky Office of the State Entomologist works with county agricultural extension offices to supply people with free traps. Anyone can set up a trap, mark the location on a digital map, and then report sightings of pests like spongy moths.
Anyone can also perform “visual surveys” where they simply report any spotting of fire ants, spotted lanternflies, or their preferred habitat, the “Tree of Heaven.”
Carl Harper with the entomologist’s office started the program. He still regularly monitors and maintains the data sent by citizens.
Harper said vigilant monitoring through citizen scientists – and a few official surveys – are especially important on the eastern border of Kentucky. In nearby Virginia, established populations of spongy moths have taken hold near the state’s border.
“Right now, all we ever tend to find is the adult male…we have yet to find egg masses, we have yet to find caterpillars. Knock on wood, let's keep it that way,” Harper said. “For those in Eastern Kentucky, the more the merrier. If there were 10 houses side by side, I'd take 10 traps side by side.”
Harper has a very limited budget. He gets no direct funding from the state of Kentucky, although the office is mandated by statute. Meanwhile, he says the funding he gets more the U.S. Department of Agriculture has been shrinking, so the more than 400 free traps set and monitored by citizens goes a long way.
“It's anywhere from $50 [thousand] to $75,000 worth of time and labor that I did not have available to me,” Harper said, estimating the value of citizen reports in 2024 alone.
Harper says there’s good news on the result of the program this year – there were no invasives spotted. Another official survey only found 15 invasive moths.
Anyone interested in participating in 2025 can sign up online.
State government and politics reporting is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
