Armed with her black flip flop, Rose Crimaldi got to work Tuesday afternoon.

The 53-year-old chef from Sandy Hook killed about 50 of the more than 200 spotted lanternflies she saw during a day trip to Atlantic Highlands.

“First I screamed, then swatted them away with my flip flop,” Crimaldi told NJ Advance Media on Wednesday.

Crimaldi learned like other New Jersey beachgoers that they weren’t the only ones to descend upon the shore this week.

Pesky spotted lanternflies, evident by their red and black wings when they’re in their adult stage, were reported at several beaches in Monmouth and Ocean counties, township officials told NJ Advance Media.

“They were up and down the entire eastern shore — Spring Lake, Manasquan, and Bradley, all over the beach. They were on the water, by the sand and on the boardwalk in Belmar. All the towns experienced the same thing,” Edward D. Kirschenbaum, the business administrator in Belmar, said on Wednesday afternoon.

Kirschenbaum noted that by Wednesday morning the majority were gone — either swept away by the water or killed and cleaned up.

Keith Rella, who works in the administrator’s office in Brick, also said there have been reports of spotted lanternflies throughout various areas of Ocean County since Tuesday.

Spotted lanternflies are invasive insects, feeding on the sap of their host plants, and leaving behind a sugary substance called honeydew that encourages fungal growth and new insects on the weakened plants. Although they don’t pose any threat to people or pets, the lanternflies could cause serious damage to cash crops in the Garden State like grapes, hops and ornamental trees, officials say.

What were tiny black or red-bodied lanternfly nymphs in June, have now gotten bigger, grown wings and taken to the air to swarm more trees and plants, just like they did last summer and fall here in New Jersey, as well as Pennsylvania, New York and other eastern states.

According to Rutgers University’s New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, the lanternflies tend to feed on the trunk and limbs of more than 70 plant species like “cultivated and wild grape, fruit trees, and hardwood trees common in woodlots and as landscape plantings.”

Danielle Buonopane took a trip to Seven Presidents in Long Branch on Tuesday for her birthday. She was disappointed to spend it killing more than 50 spotted lanternflies before throwing in the towel and heading home.

“I flicked them off with my shoe and then buried them in the sand. I tried stepping on them but that was useless,” said Buonopane. “I’ve only seen them in East Brunswick, at home … never at the beach.”

Is it unusual for spotted lanternflies to swarm across the Jersey Shore?

“It depends on the density of the population of lanternflies nearby,” said Maritza Jaugerui, an associate professor of sustainability in the environmental studies program at Stockton University. “Beach communities have houses with greenery around them so it wouldn’t be that unusual. If you have a lot of adult spotted lanternflies around, you’re going to see them pretty much everywhere.”

A spokesman with the New Jersey Department of Agriculture said Thursday that the agency was aware of spotted lanternflies at the Jersey Shore and throughout the state. Information on specific areas was not available, he said.

“The spotted lanternfly is an excellent hitchhiker and has the ability to travel on any type of transportation for several miles. While it cannot fly for any kind of distance — only a few meters at once — its ability to hitchhike has allowed it to spread to several states,” the spokesman added. “We are asking that drivers check their vehicles whenever possible before they leave to make sure there is not a spotted lanternfly attempting to hitchhike.”

The New Jersey Department of Agriculture is no longer asking residents to report sightings, he added.

Anne L. Nielsen, an associate extension specialist in entomology at Rutgers University, said that as of last summer the school has also stopped tracking spotted lanternflies due to how common they’ve become — instead focusing on mitigating their impact on agriculture in the state. How wind, heat waves and other weather factors may be playing a role in pushing lanternflies throughout the state including the Jersey Shore is still being determined, she said.

Any chance the seagulls will eat them? So far, no luck.

“As an invasive species, it would not naturally be in (the gulls’) diet,” Jaugerui said, adding that they likely also wouldn’t taste good because they feed primarily off the tree of heaven. “There is a study at Penn State looking at what types of birds and insects might feed on them.”

Rella said Brick consulted with the state agency following calls about the pests.

“For the most part we were told spotted lanternflies are going to be a nuisance but they won’t present a health or safety issue,” Rella said. “In some cases, they could affect people’s vegetables gardens.”

If you come across a spotted lanternfly, squish it, officials said.

Stomping or swatting it should do the trick but be mindful that they can be nimble. If you’re at the beach barefoot, following Crimaldi and opting for a flip-flop might be the way to go.

“It’s gross but they’re not going to sting you or bite you,” said Jaugerui. “They’re pretty hearty. If you step on them with your bare foot, you’re not going to do much damage.”

NJ Advance Media staff writer Len Melisurgo contributed to this report.

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Steven Rodas may be reached at srodas@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @stevenrodasnj.

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