A TikTok video that has gone viral provides a natural way to kill spotted lanternflies using only an empty water bottle, writes Danielle Letenyei for Green Matters.

A year ago, TikTok creator @greenleafa posted a video on how she killed many lanternflies with a simple method. At the start of the video, she displayed a clear plastic water bottle half-filled with dead lanternflies. She noted that it took her an hour to collect that many bugs.

Her approach was to take an empty water bottle to a tree with many spotted lanternflies on it. As she held up the water bottle up to an insect on the tree, it would pop straight into it.

“You hold the water bottle horizontal to them, and they bounce right inside of it,” she explained. “They jump backwards.”

The process looks like the water bottle is vacuuming the bugs off the tree.

For the bugs on the ground, the TikToker said you need to step on them from the front since “their eyes are looking backwards,” she said.

That will ensure that you crush them before they jump away from the threat.

Read more about how to kill spotted lanternflies in Green Matters.

Viral Water Bottle Hack for Trapping Spotted Lanternfly