- [Narrator] More than 200 wineries in North Carolina are attracting tourists who come for a taste.

But vineyard owners are worried about an invasive insect with a big appetite.

Meet the spotted lanternfly.

It's small with a one inch wingspan, but this insect brings power in numbers.

Threatening agriculture along the Eastern United States, this bug's spread caught the attention of social media users and people in the wine industry.

NC State Forestry Professor Kelly Oten says vineyard owners have much to fear.

- Spotted lanternfly are piercing, sucking insects.

That means they use sucking mouth parts to feed on the sap of the plant it attacks, whether that be grapevine, a tree, whatever, but they're directly removing nutrients from the tree.

Over time, that weakens the tree or the plant.

- [Narrator] The spotted lanternfly comes from China and other parts of Southern Asia.

Scientists speculate the lanternflies traveled via a stone shipment with the first infestation reported in Pennsylvania in 2014.

Since then, the bugs have spread through Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Virginia, and several other states.

In 2022, the first lanternfly colony in North Carolina was found in Forsyth County.

Oten says lanternflies deposit what she calls egg masses that hitch rides on cars and trucks.

- It kind of looks like a smear of mud on the side of tree.

It starts off shiny, but then it dries up and cracks.

It's really hard to see so you can understand how it could easily be missed and accidentally move from place to place.

- [Narrator] Vineyard manager Joseph Geller is preparing for the lanternfly's arrival at Dynamis Estate Wines in Jonesville.

- We've been worried about spotted lanternfly for about the last five years.

It's really, you know, hit the news, hit the extension bulletins.

The Department of Agriculture has sent out quite a bit of information to keep people abreast of all the information.

- [Narrator] Oten says people can mistake several species for the evolving lanternfly.

For example, the nymph stage can look like a tick.

An adult lanternfly can look like a giant leopard moth.

Most infected areas have now implemented kill on sight programs.

But before you kill the bug, the North Carolina Department of Agriculture wants you to take a photo, note the exact location, and send both to badbug@ncagr.gov.

Biologist Oten says you can also monitor the population through what she calls circle traps.

- And the way this works is as the insects migrate up and down the trunk of the tree, they climb into this trap.

They continue to climb upwards, that's their natural inclination, and then eventually they end up in the baggie.

And so then you come and check the baggie.

They will not move downward once they're already in the bag.

So you will come, if this tree is infested, you should see many spotted lanternflies in that bag.

- [Narrator] Besides catching the insect, Dynamis manager Geller is cutting down host plants, like this tree of heaven, from his 1,500 acre vineyard.

Like the lanternfly, the tree of heaven comes from Asia.

- The tree of heaven is really important because it is an invasive plant itself and this being an invasive insect is actually from the same native range as the tree of heaven.

So here in the United States, it is the preferred host of the spotted lanternfly.

- [Narrator] You can identify the tree by its light bark or the shape and branching veins of its leaves.

When crushed, the leaf... - Smells like burnt peanut butter.

- [Narrator] With more than 500 vineyards in North Carolina, the lanternfly is a threat to business, says Dynamis winemaker, Matheson Worrell.

- It takes a lot of guts to really get into this industry and make that investment and to have that at risk, it's a terrifying thing.

Besides money being at stake, it's a whole culture behind wine making and North Carolina is still kind of a developing region and it's been decades of progress kind of coming to this point.

- [Narrator] North Carolina vineyards now employ nearly 10,000 people.

They need your help to prevent the spread of the lanternfly to new parts of the state.

- Look at your vehicles.

These insects are excellent hitchhikers.

They could easily lay egg masses on your cars, RVs, firewood, equipment that's moved around, and don't be the reason that this insect moves around.

- [Narrator] If you find the lanternfly, remember reporting is key.

- In other areas where spotted lanternfly is already found, there's big news releases, you know, a lot of public pressure to kill it, kill it, kill it.

But here in North Carolina, we're still trying to detect it.

So yes, kill it, but also report it to the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

- [Narrator] With detection efforts, growers and the public can keep this invasive insect at bay and continue developing the state's budding industry.