Spotted Lanternfly Inspection Timing and Recordkeeping

Equipment inspection image courtesy of USDA

Regular spotted lanternfly inspections should be done from April 1st through December 1st each year.

To kick off the new inspection season in April, we highly recommend doing a thorough sweep of all vehicles, equipment, and property to find and scrape any particularly well-hidden egg masses before they begin to hatch. Finding and destroying those egg masses now will benefit your business, your community, your customers, and your business partners.  

Conduct inspections when moving vehicles or materials within the quarantine zone, leaving the quarantine zone, or entering Pennsylvania from another area that has a Spotted Lanternfly population. Check out the program FAQs for more details.

Be sure your business is prepared to keep routine inspection logs. An inspection record must identify the date and the person conducting the inspection, indicate the results of the inspection, and document any control measures taken if live lanternflies were found. The business must retain these records for two years.

There is no required template for vehicle inspections. If possible, incorporate SLF inspections into existing activities, such as daily inspections or safety checks, rather than keeping additional logs. Electronic records are acceptable if you can make them available to the Department during a verification checkpoint or audit. Examples of inspection logs can be found as a resource in the online permit course and on the PDA SLF Business web page.