Those insects you see hopping around … well … everywhere you walk in the Ohio Valley these days? Those spotted lantern flies aren’t just a nuisance you need to step over. In fact, you should be stepping on them.

The lantern fly has worked its way into both sides of the Ohio Valley. They’re found throughout the Northern Panhandle in West Virginia and have been both confirmed and established in Belmont and Jefferson counties.

They like to feed on the sap of fruit trees and vines like apple, cherry and grape, and the liquid they secrete invites sooty, black mold that can choke out the trees’ leaves. They don’t just create sad-looking trees. They can damage economies.

And, according to Julianne Latynski, an urban ecosystem manager in Ohio County, their population has quadrupled in size over the last few years.

So how can you help keep those pests under control? Squash the ones you see. Latynski offered a strategy: lantern flies can only hop forward, so attack them from the front and they can’t get away.

You can also seek out their egg masses — they look like smears of mud — and destroy those, too. That way, the lantern flies you’d see next season won’t be so plentiful.

It may not seem like much, but a little vigilance in getting rid of those nasty bugs now will only help in the future. And it will keep some pretty important plants healthy and fruitful.