Larry Lykins has learned to roll with the punches when it comes to threats to his 14-acre Ellijay vineyard.

His winery survived a virus spread via nursery plants several years after he bought the vineyard in 2007. More recently, he dealt with glassy-winged sharpshooters, a bug species that moves viruses from one plant to another.  

So, when he heard last week that the spotted lanternfly – a fruit orchard pest with an insatiable appetite for grapes, peaches, plums and apples – had been sighted for the first time in Georgia, he remained calm.

“When I first started back in ’07 or ’08, we didn’t have to spray for insects very much,” said Lykins, owner of Cartercay Vineyards, a grower of several grape varieties, including Vidal Blanc, Catawba, Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot. “But now we do. It’s all part of warmer climates and globalization where bugs hitch rides on cargo ships.

“Being a farmer you just have to educate yourself and do the best you can with it,” he said.

The Georgia Department of Agriculture last week confirmed the first sighting of the spotted lanternfly on Oct. 22 in Fulton County, making the state the 18th in the nation that the pest now calls home and the most southern. The agency warned farmers, agriculture businesses and homeowners alike that the bug poses a serious risk to the state’s agricultural sector. It does not appear to pose a threat to humans. 

The spotted lanternfly – which is more akin to an aphid or a stink bug – damages plants and trees by producing “a sticky, sugary waste fluid that encourages the growth of sooty mold,” the state said.

The remedy: kill it on sight, Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler J. Harper said.

“We urge anyone who sees the spotted lanternfly in their area to document it, report it, and kill it,” he said in Thursday’s announcement. “Controlling the spread of the spotted lanternfly is our best strategy for safeguarding Georgia’s agriculture industry, and we are asking for the public’s help in this effort.”

The bug spreads by various methods, including laying eggs or egg masses on tires, chairs and vehicles, said Mike Evans, director of state agriculture department’s plant protection division. 

The spotted lanternfly lays eggs from September to November, with nymphs born in the spring, state officials and experts said. Adults die at the first hard frost. 

Paul McDaniel, forest health coordinator for the Georgia Forestry Commission, said elimination of the spotted lanternfly is critical to protect the state’s urban trees. Hardwoods in Georgia cities and large ex-urban communities already struggle for survival because of limited space for root growth and excessive sunlight from pavement, making it easier for the spotted lanternfly to cause damage. 

“A lot of your urban trees already have stressors just being in that environment,” he said. 

A major lure of the spotted lanternfly is the tree of heaven, an invasive deciduous tree that while not as prevalent in Georgia as in other states, still presents a host for the bug, said Sarah Lowder, a University of Georgia extension viticulture specialist and assistant professor of horticulture. Those with trees of heaven on their property should cut them down immediately to reduce the risk of a spotted lanternfly outbreak.

“It is one of their preferred food sources so you want to get rid of that so you don’t hopefully draw any of those in,” she said. “I guess it tastes the best.”

While it’s necessary to alert others to the threat the spotted lanternfly poses, Brett Blaauw told the Georgia Recorder everyone should take a breath. There are still a lot of unknowns about how it will react in Georgia and what steps will be more effective to bring it under control, said Blaauw, a University of Georgia associate professor and extension specialist with a focus on grape growing

Blaauw on Thursday posted to a viticulture blog followed by Georgia vineyard owners that their crops are not in peril.

“We need to work as an industry to monitor, track, and manage this new pest,” he wrote in the blog. “While any new, invasive species is going to be scary, thankfully there has been a lot of work done in other states that we can adapt to be used in Georgia, so we are not starting from scratch.”

He said even if thousands of bugs are found swarming a single tree – which they sometimes have been known to do – the tree can often survive the ambush if it is well-established. 

“For growers, seeing this bug that’s over an inch long, it can be quite intimidating,” said Blaauw, who also is a Clemson University associate professor.

It’s also unclear if the spotted lanternfly can take Georgia’s heat, especially the further south it travels, he said.

“It’s a new bug,” Blaauw said. “It’s probably going to expand in its population and its range in Georgia, but we need to not panic. At least not yet.”

Former Georgia GOP Congressman Doug Collins could be headed back to Washington to serve as head of the second-largest department in the federal government, the United States Department of Veterans Affairs.

If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Collins will oversee a staff of nearly 371,000 tasked with providing health care, benefits and burial services for American veterans and their families.

Collins is a Baptist minister and businessman who also became a lawyer later in life. Born in Gainesville, he studied at North Georgia College, New Orleans Theological Seminary and John Marshall Law School. He joined the United States Air Force Reserve as a chaplain following the Sept. 11 attacks and previously served as a Navy chaplain. He currently holds the rank of colonel in the Air Force Reserve.

Collins served in the Georgia House from 2007 to 2012, departing for a successful Congressional campaign, and he represented northeast Georgia’s 9th Congressional District from 2013 to 2021.

In Congress, Collins gained a reputation as a solid Trump ally, defending then-president Donald Trump during special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether Russia improperly influenced the 2016 election and authoring a book on Trump’s first impeachment.

Collins was Trump’s favorite to replace the late GOP U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson when Isakson retired from the Senate, but Gov. Brian Kemp bucked Trump and chose businesswoman Kelly Loeffler instead.

Collins dropped out of Congress to mount a bid for Loeffler’s seat when she was up in the 2020 election, but he lost to Loeffler after a contentious GOP primary, and Loeffler would go on to be defeated by Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat, in a runoff.

In 2021, Collins announced that he would not be seeking election to any office in a letter to supporters.

“For those who may wonder, this is goodbye for now, but probably not forever,” he wrote.

Trump’s appointment may give Collins another round in the national spotlight.

“We must take care of our brave men and women in uniform, and Doug will be a great advocate for our Active Duty Servicemembers, Veterans, and Military Families to ensure they have the support they need,” president-elect Donald Trump said in a statement naming Collins as his appointee.

Collins will need approval from the Senate before he can take the reins, but he thanked Trump in a statement and pledged to improve care for the approximately 16 million military veterans in the U.S., including about 700,000 in Georgia.

“We’ll fight tirelessly to streamline and cut regulations in the VA, root out corruption, and ensure every veteran receives the benefits they’ve earned. Together, we’ll make the VA work for those who fought for us. Time to deliver for our veterans and give them the world class care they deserve.”

Complaints about the VA have been constant for years, said state Rep. Josh Bonner, a Fayetteville Republican and chair of the House Defense and Veterans Affairs Committee. Service members often report facing delays getting appointments and benefits and say the department is not responsive to complaints.

“It’s never been great, but I’d say it’s gotten worse over the last few years, as things have kind of winded down from Iraq and Afghanistan,” Bonner said. “And then with the PACT Act, that has increased the number of veterans that are eligible for benefits, And so what you have now is even more veterans that are eligible, that are straining the system that’s in place.”

Bonner said he thinks Collins’ experience as a servicemember and a member of Congress make him a good fit for the job.

“All those things combined give him a pretty unique perspective,” he said. “And I think, just again, knowing him personally, I think he’s a very smart guy, who knows how to get things done. And I think that there’s a lot of momentum in the veteran community to see him succeed.”

Bonner said Collins’ statement about streamlining and cutting regulations is just the right message.

“The VA is its own healthcare system, so it’s massive, so when I think of streamlining and cutting red tape, I look at things like allowing veterans instead of waiting six months for a VA doctor 100 miles away from where they live, allowing them to make an appointment with their own doctor.”

Sen. Josh McLaurin, a Sandy Springs Democrat who sits on the Senate’s Veterans Committee, said discontent with the VA’s operation is bipartisan, and he’s hopeful that Collins’ appointment will mean more attention for Georgia’s military communities and that the former Congressman will be able to turn the department around.

Much of that will be down to budgeting, which won’t be directly in Collins’ hands, but McLaurin said Collins has an opportunity to change the often adversarial relationship vets describe between themselves and claims managers.

“The VA should not operate like an insurance company, to put it bluntly,” McLaurin said.

“Far too often, veterans have the experience that they feel like they’re dealing with an insurance adjuster as opposed to somebody who is genuinely interested in making them whole for the service that they’ve provided to the country. That would be the general perspective I have, and I think that perspective is shared in a bipartisan fashion. There might be different policy views on how to address particular problems with the VA, but in general, I think we want to see an administration that is more oriented towards believing veterans and providing them the services that they need in a timely manner.”

One policy difference that may come up during the next four years goes back to what Collins said about streamlining. Some Democrats fear that could mean privatizing care and laying off workers. For McLaurin, that’s the exact wrong approach.

“When you cut funding for the VA, or you outsource critical functions of the VA to private industry, which is most of all concerned about its profit motive – I mean, that’s every business, its bottom line comes first – the concern is that you move the system even further away from the mindset I’m talking about, which is to trust veterans to approach them without a scarcity mindset and to make sure they get the care and the benefits they deserve,” he said.

McLaurin said he’s hopeful Collins will pick the approach that’s best for America’s vets.

“This is one of those cases where you don’t root against the opposing party when they come into power, right? I mean, particularly in the case of veterans, you’re rooting for Doug Collins to succeed and to do something with the VA that up till now has proved very difficult.”

ATLANTA (AP) — A new Georgia program that will give up to $6,500 a year to some families to pay for private school tuition or home-schooling expenses will begin accepting applications in early 2025, but lawmakers must still determine how many vouchers the state will pay for.

The Georgia Education Savings Authority voted Monday to approve rules setting up the program, called the Georgia Promise Scholarship.

The education savings account program will begin for the 2025-2026 school year. After a long struggle, Republicans pushed the law through earlier this year, part of a nationwide GOP wave favoring education savings accounts. Supporters say parents should take the lead in deciding how children learn. Opponents argue the voucher program will subtract resources from public schools, even as other students remain behind.

The law provides $6,500 education savings accounts to students zoned for any public school in Georgia’s bottom 25% for academic achievement. That money could be spent on private school tuition, textbooks, transportation, home-schooling supplies, therapy, tutoring or even early college courses for high school students.

Students who qualify must either have attended a public school for two consecutive semesters or must be a kindergartner about to enroll. Parents must have been Georgia residents for at least a year, unless they are on active military duty.

Lawmakers must decide next year how much to appropriate, but the law creating the program limits spending to 1% of the $14.1 billion that Georgia spends on its K-12 school funding formula, or $141 million. That could provide more than 21,000 scholarships.

The authority announced the launch of the mygeorgiapromise.org website and the hiring of a company to run that site. Parents will be able to use the website to pay tuition or buy goods and services.

The state will begin accepting applications from private schools that want to take the vouchers beginning Wednesday. The Governor’s Office of Student Achievement is supposed to announce the list of the bottom 25% of schools on Dec. 1. The authority says it will accept applications from parents in early 2025.

If more people apply than there are vouchers available, students from households with incomes of less than four times the federal poverty level would be prioritized. Four times the federal poverty level is about $100,000 for a family of three. If there are still too many applications for the available money, recipients will be determined in a random drawing.

Georgia already gives vouchers for special education students in private schools and $120 million a year in income tax credits for donors to private school scholarship funds. Students can’t combine the new Georgia Promise program with those programs.

Private schools must be located in Georgia and must be accredited or seeking accreditation from an approved organization. Private schools will have to administer an approved standardized test and report students’ test results.