So what makes lanternflies eat trees?

That's a really, really great question.

And it's always fascinating to think, you know, why insects are eating what they're eating.

And in the case of the lanternfly, it's a little bug.

So we often use the word bug to very colloquially mean insects, but actually it's quite a scientific term.

And it refers to those insects that have a kind of piercing mouth part.

So they have a mouth part that's like a straw and they can stick it into a plant and then they can draw out their food up that straw.

So when the lanternfly approaches the tree, is it putting its kind of straw, as you say, straight into the bark? Does it go after a certain part of the tree that's easier?