Meet the Vigilantes Trying to Wipe Out the Spotted Lanternfly 

Service guarantees citizenship.

Someone keep an eye on that kid enjoying it a little too much 😅

"The only good bug is a dead bug." - Starship Troopers

I probably killed over a hundred of these pretty bugs in Philedelphia in a couple of days there. Problem is, you have to bring the fight to them. You need to bring the murder to areas where there aren't huge numbers of people. That means mobilizing people to rural nesting sights.

As an asian guy, i recommend bringing 50 year old asian dads there with slippers and rolled up newspapers. They'll get the job done 😂✌️

8 year old me would have made that his life for a while.

No need for a bag, they just need a Chancla.

She's not the hero they asked for...but she's the hero they needed. The Black Widow

"I'm probably gonna be squishin em for the rest of my life."

Usually PTSD is reason to *leave* war, but for her, it’s her reason to fight

All the dislikes are from spotted lanternfly's.

I love how the kids are involved. Probably more excited than the parents to squish em up.

I would invite airsoft players, gave them biodegradable BBs and let them kill all those bugs

Blind date Girl to guy: do you have any hobbies? Guy: yeah, I snowboard…write poems…play guitar…How about you, what is your biggest passion? Girl: I squish bugs…

the issue with lanternflies is that they are incredibly agile at avoiding getting stomped on and are capable of hiding and laying eggs high above trees and even buildings. I am not surprised how rapidly they are reproducing and spreading everywhere.

"Walking over with shocker racket" *Nothing personal bug...*

When my niece was 4 years old, a moth came into my sister's house. My niece freaked out at first, but I tried to explain to her that this kind of moth was harmless so we could just catch it and take it outside or squash it. She immediately grabbed a book on the shelf and slammed the poor little dude. I was caught off-guard and she just looked at me like, "can we play dolls now?"

trust me just bring an asian parent to your hunts, they are the best bug killers ever existed in our lifetime

2:40 Host- "How does it make you feel squishing them?" "Powerful. But mostly I don't feel anything." - Future Sniper

I live across the street from their favorite habitat, a mature so-called 'tree of heaven" (or ghetto palm) in an urban Philly neighborhood. We seem to come across more dead bugs then alive this summer. They are being crushed by humans, shredded by cats, caught up in sticky traps, and just generally being attacked from all angles. They came here escaping the pesticides and park ranger death squads in the rural fringe. Their attempt to find refuge in the city is failing, and the tree itself is just a trap to make them easier to find and kill.

I have strong "do your part" starship troopers meme vibes.

Finally Vice reports about a likeable group of vigilantes.

That woman is venting some built up frustration from being a healthcare working the past year, no doubt.

Appreciate yall showing more and more conservation movements. We need it now more than ever

That salt rifle is the most fun you can have killing bugs. Works perfect in Australia, where most of the most common critters around the house are venomous. Just don't point it at people. It bloody hurts, and it literally rubs salt into the wound

If they aren’t poisonous these bugs can be great for feeding lizards pets and chicken farm

Here in P.A alot of our wild life started eating them, we also have people hunting them like this. In fact this year the later flies are really dwindling right now. They are attempting to move to the city for heat and alot of the animals there are killing them too

"I'll be squishin em for the rest of my life." - Kid That is how an invasive species works.

If someone told me back 50 years ago (when I was a little boy) that there will come a day where it's perfectly normal to go around purposely killing a particular bug, I'd have been in shock. But yet here we are in 2021. I first learned about the Spotted Lantern Fly only back in late spring and found that odd so few other people ever heard of this menace that has been terrorizing the U.S. as far back as 2014. Which begs the question, why isn't this problem getting more sensationalism in the news? Also, trying to explain this "killing bugs is good" act to my six year old daughter was unbelievably difficult, and she is deathly afraid of bugs to begin with. So yea, there is a moral dilemma with some folks I suppose.

"This is the spotted lanternfly. It looks totally harmless." *Looks totally harmful*

I'll probably be squishing the rest of my life.

You know years ago i used to hang out with this crazy hippy guy who did this for trees and went and chopped down Alanthus trees because they were super invasive. For years we did it and didnt dent the population. We told everyone and no one cared how it was taking over the forests and ravines. All over Toronto these plants spring up and no one bats an eye, super invasive is an understatement. And now we have this bug, whose preferred food is alanthus trees... go figure. Maybe if they cared back then it woulnt have been such an issue now.

I just want to be the first kid on my block with a confirmed kill

Id let Mandy squash me

As a Pennsylvania resident I've been a spotted lantern fly eliminator. !!!!!!

Bouta grab my Salt Gun and go on a rampage!

The fact that we get free documentaries on RU-vid by VICE News is truly a gift. 👍

aww shes so cute and wholesome hunting for them. getting 200 kills a day sounds hardcore 😊

One dies, dozens more are guaranteed to take its place HAIL HYDRA!

That glint in her eye when she says how many she's trodden on! 😍

ngl she shouldn't feel bad for killing the bugs - she kills them really fast(), she's helping her community, and also most insects are not intelligent enough to feel pain, or have emotions.

Some German old WW2 vet dude : "Hans, bring mir den Flammenwerfer!"

"The only good bug is a dead bug!" No quarter given!

Did anyone else have Spotted Lantern Fly on their 2021 apocalypse bingo 🤔 🤣 That kid definitely said "I'll be doing this the rest of my life." Really F*king ominous Vice this was much needed for everyone right now 👏🏾🙃

One year later, there are more lanternflies than ever. This did not age well

The only good bug is a dead bug

That kid was right he probably would be squishing them his whole life

Someone keep on eye on lil pauly🥶👣

We need to develop that subconscious drive to squash these like we do mosquitoes. This will take the entire community

Remember to squish the eggs this spring. It looks like chipped paint, mold, or clay on flat surfaces including plants or structures found in the yard. They will emerge late April or May. Squish away!

For the record I do not hate bugs. I just hate invasive ones.

Some of these kids are future Jeffrey dahmers.....

In South Florida: Meet the vigilantes trying to wipe out the Invasive Iguanas

How to kill a lantern fly with three ingredients. 1. One empty spray bottle that shoots in a stream. 2. 20% Dishwashing soap 3. 80% Water Spray those suckers dead.

imagining going on a date and ask a girl what you do I am professional bug squasher

Whenever I see an Asian long horn spotted beetle I make sure everyone near by takes a look before I kill it then I explain to them why it's so important. We need more flyers of bugs to kill on sight. Education is the best weapon

“It’s kind of satisfying” has me

In 1912 Toronto held a fly killing competition which was pretty successful. Why not do the same with lantern flies, offer a monetary reward for x amount of flies killed.

That kid who was delighted by squishing them needs to be monitored lol

They aren't going away. We also have an invasive tree from china known as "stairway to heaven". The lanternflys live in these trees. The trees are everywhere, they grow like weeds, very fast, tall, and the roots go very deep into the ground, their roots steal water from native trees. Also - the lanternfly eggs survive through the winter freeze and they hatch in the spring. We are screwed.

Lol my friend was telling me about the importance of killing these bugs. We saw one in a shopping center and he took off his fucking shoe and wailed it.

Also, no, just killing the bugs isn't going to make a dent. But what I didn't hear in this video (unless I missed it) is the best civilian defense is to kill off the eggs, either ourselves or to alert officials. I live in Hershey and drive along back roads and see these huge houses with giant trees in the yard covered in the eggs and no one does a thing. I don't know what the laws are regarding officials coming on private property to kill bugs/eggs, whatever. But the eggs are where we can do justice. The only thing that keeps me from freaking out is that so far we still have a window every year when they freeze off and we can start our fight anew. We vigilantes just need better marketing to get the word out!

I didnt thought I would be interested in an 8 minute video about killing bugs, but here I am

Everybody gangster till they meet the kid torturing lantern flies

I’ll volunteer with a back mounted flame thrower, it’ll take what half a second of flame on them to cook them almost instantly. It’s not long enough to damage anything else. But cook thousands of them in an hour

Stands in the woods in the dark: “I am Bugman” 🦹‍♂️

The term “dropping like flies” has a new meaning to me now 💀

That 7 year old boy was way too enthusiastic about how he kills the bugs lol his parents should keep an eye on him 😂

3:37 I was not expecting the calm narrator lady to say that

Imagine having the time to do this while throwing ziploc bags everywhere.

Queue in the intro from Starship troopers with the kids going "I'm doing my part!"

Damm she literally went ham on them flies. She looked cute and innocent until she came across the flies.

I have an executioner. Great racket. Safety rules of today don’t allow a WMD like that anymore.

As a PA resident, its not as bad anymore as it had been. I'm sure other states are seeing the worst of it like we originally did. Maybe townships should start easing up on restrictions for having backyard chickens because my chickens catch them all the time and eat them. What this video doesn't show you is what their eggs actually look like. If you find the eggs you can destroy them as well. This wasn't a useful video if vice is actually concerned...

I dont know much about lantern flies, but she sure has cute toes!

I feel that way about sugar ants, and the infested timber and fruit that came from South America over the last 20+ years. I had to remove two cherry trees from my yard, because they infested the trees over a 7 year period.

I was with my Mom in a Gloucester Township park on two separate days, and we had to have gotten well over 100 of them both times. She also gets a lot at her office in Voorhees

I fucking hate those bugs they are all over the Philadelphia and NYC area

The real winner of this battle is yoga pants.

This is ridiculous. This will do absolutely nothing to reduce their numbers.

The spiders around my house are doing their part. 🕷️❤️

"Oh! It's still alive, step on it again." That girl 😂 and SImon is like "KILL 'EM ALL" 🤣

plot twist, they're playing dead in the bottle and she just freed them all

I've seen stupid ways to deal with a problem. But, Vice and people in this video managed to beat the record.

Now in 2023 we are being told we have to scrape the eggs off the barks of the trees. Try doing this with small trees with many tiny branches of at most two inches in diameter if you want to go crazy.

Used to call these vampire bugs. But they weren’t this damn big where I grew up.

"I'm probably gonna squish them for the rest of my life" was one of the cutest things I've ever heard

“Do You Want TO Live FOR EVER?” - Rico

Ya need a squad of rednecks and about 40 suitcases of beer. Those things will be gone in a week.

5:56 damm she's a GIANT! 👑👀❤️

I would feed them to my praying mantis.

The bottle method is so much easier looking, and you don’t have to squish them with your hands.

Why do they put them in bags and kill them? Just smash them where they are sitting or standing.

Hey Mandy, I didn’t see a ring and they didn’t mention a guy what good

Title: Meet the Vigilantes.... Me: Uh oh Title:.....Trying to wipeout the spotted lanternfly Me: Oh thank god.

My grandpa would love a bug killing club

They should get these bug zappers at harbor freight for $2.99 works like a charm

Thought this was gonna be an intentional comedy with that thumbnail. I had one of those salt guns. They didn't work that well. But.... This was really funny!

I sorry I get it but… maybe we shouldn’t be teaching children especially young kids it’s ok to brutally kill bugs

Why cant they squish it with their foot