“Kill every one of those bugs that dare to tarnish God’s green earth. Drive over them, salt their fields, hear the lamentations of their bug women.”
It’s not hard to guess what creature is the target of Patrick McCrady’s battle cry. Spotted lanternflies, insect invaders from China, have kindled students’ rage as they flood across Franciscan University’s campus. Wherever they creep, destruction and shrieks follow. And these bugs have nearly caused tragedy on multiple occasions.
Karilyn Debelo relates how a lanternfly attack almost ended in a car accident. “One followed me into my car, and I almost crashed my car because it flew into my face,” she says. “They are evil and must die.” According to Debelo, mass murder is the only appropriate response to the lanternfly takeover.
Her perspective is not unique—many students are demanding war. Ian Hoover calls for “a crusade with all the men on campus.” He explains that this crusade would be grounded in spiritual warfare, since lanternflies “are the most wicked of creatures, whom we have been plagued with by the forces of darkness to deter us from our prayer, studies, and leisure.” Under these accusations, bug genocide is truly justified.
Squashing lanternflies is also a Biblically rooted display of righteous anger. Paraphrasing Matthew 21:13, when Our Lord chases moneychangers out of the temple, Hoover says, “Our dorms are overrun, our chapels made into dens of flies.” Lanternflies that swarm the columns of Christ the King Chapel, he insists, must be destroyed.
If anybody doubts the morality of killing lanternflies, know that priests have condoned it. Claire Perez reminisces that during freshman orientation, Brother Simon Mary begged students to slaughter lanternflies. “Even God’s servants want us to kill them,” says Perez.
Joseph Demary also weighed in, sharing that a priest friend “considered killing bugs acceptable, as it is warfare.” Clearly, the Magisterium would approve of a just war against lanternflies.
However, Lauren Goodman proposes a peaceful solution: a new household focused on healing from lanternfly trauma. Although she is currently a Magnifica Amorem Christi household intent, Goodman has already outlined pillars and patron saints for the lanternfly household.
The pillars, Goodman said, would include “the virtue of conquering, discerning evil and bravery.” She has chosen St. Magnus and St. Dominic of Silos, heavenly intercessors against insects, as the household’s patron saints.
Unfortunately, both war and household plans must wait until spring. A hard frost on the morning of Oct. 9 spelled doom for lanternflies, who cannot survive the freeze. Until their eggs hatch in May, the lanternfly corpses strewn on the sidewalks are the one reminder of their invasion.