PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – A pesky plant-damaging pest is now setting up shop close to our home.

The spotted lanternfly has hitched a ride into our neighborhoods and is showing up with increasing frequency.

When posed with the question: "Can you keep them off of your property?" The folks at Penn State Extension had one simple word in response.

"No."

Up until about a week ago, the spotted lanternfly was something Shannon Stevenson had only seen on the news, and then she saw them at the pool.

"[I] killed a few of them there and then just yesterday I was on a walk nearby on Grandview Avenue with some young kids and we were walking and just kept seeing a bunch of them," she recalled.

Pittsburghers know that the view from Mt. Washington is beautiful, but the lanternflies didn't make their way there for the view.

"They are looking for young plants, they like woody vines and but they will actually suck the sap out of anything," said Shannon Powers from the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. "They don't harm people, they don't harm animals, they're essentially a nuisance."

Well…that's saying the least. They will gorge themselves on your yard's trees, and plants and they're also going to leave eggs that will hatch next year, and then you're going to have even more.

A lot more, according to entomologist Dr. Chad Gore of Rentokil North America.

"I hate to be like that, but I think that's certainly the case," he said.

That's why the state is encouraging everyone to do what Shannon Stevenson did on Mount Washington.

"We made a game of counting how many of them we saw and then how many of them I squished along the way," she said.

Too many to count – the little suckers are hitchhikers. They'll get on your car, by the windshield wipers or in the wheel wells, or on the undercarriage, and catch a ride to wherever you're going and that's how they spread.

The state is saying give your car the once over before you leave wherever you are – look in the wheel wells, if you see them knock them off, they are not something you want to take home.

They're now appearing in 45 counties and perhaps in your neighborhood!

The invasive pests are sucking up sap in a growing number of neighborhoods and damaging just about anything that grows.

"Don't take them to a new home, that's how they spread," Powers explained. "Look around your windshield wipers [and] in your wheel wells."

Powers said if you find one, the state agriculture department said knock it off and show no mercy – you don't want these things moving to the tree above your car because what falls is gross.

Dr. Gore said entomologists call it "honey-do" and it is sticky. In other words…bug poop.

Damage is primarily done to trees and just about everything growing in your yard, but is there a preventative treatment?

"You know I wouldn't necessarily treat without seeing them," he said.

However, once they appear, Dr. Gore said they can be dealt with in a couple of ways.

"We are putting insecticide on the tree in the canopy tree to kill the insects that contact," he said. "Just because you treat your property doesn't mean that they'll never come back - As adults – they're very they're kind of clumsy fliers but they can certainly fly."

That worries Shannon Stevenson after her encounter with these pests on Mount Washington.

"I worry about having it around having those around just because they're such pests and they're so disruptive," she said. "I mean, we hate to lose any of the greenery that we have."

The good news is that they won't survive our first cold snap but between now and then they'll have the chance to lay a lot of eggs to make next year even worse.