Laurels & lances: School starts and spotted lanternflies

Laurel: To learning lessons. Yes, it’s that time of year again. Buses are rolling. Lunches are being packed. School is opening.

Franklin Regional students were back in classrooms Wednesday, with many others close behind. Over the next week, most children will be at desks, logged into computers or sitting on a reading rug somewhere in Allegheny or Westmoreland counties.

The end of summer vacation can be stressful as kids adjust to new routines, but it also can mean the fun of new school clothes, backpacks and shoes. That can translate into stress for parents because back-to-school is an expensive time of year.

The Salvation Army in Brackenridge helped by throwing a Back-to-School Bash for Highlands students, including haircuts from Willy T’s Cuts of Tarentum. Highlands graduate Elijah Majocha helped gather money and school supplies for the event, which supplied more than 500 kids with backpacks.

In Plum, a two-day back-to-school event was organized to help Rustic Ridge families get ready for the school year just more than a week following the explosion that claimed six lives and three homes in the neighborhood.

Lance: To unwanted visitors. Spotted lanternflies. They are everywhere. Just kill them already.

Although the bugs might not be as dangerous as killer bees or as loud as the broods of cicadas that emerge from the Pennsylvania soil periodically, they are still a pest taking on plague-like proportions. They cover trees and walls and push people out of their own spaces.

Native to China, they first were seen in eastern Pennsylvania in 2014 but have spread to 51 of the state’s 67 counties. The state Department of Agriculture encourages killing them because of potential damage to vegetation, including grapevines and apple orchards.

But it’s too late to get rid of them all, according to Sandy Feather of Penn State Extension. There are just too many.

Remember that the next time the state warns about an invasive species.