A very unpopular bug is getting a lot of social media attention. 

The spotted lanternfly, an annoying bug that is playing havoc with grape and orchard crops, is the target of a lot of people who want to take revenge on the insects.

A social media campaign, called “See it? Squish it!” has gotten a lot of attention. 

There are videos on TikTok, for example, where people show themselves capturing, and killing the bugs, and over 140 million people have viewed them.

Talk about going viral!

The social media campaign has drawn the attention of state and city parks departments too. They’re asking the public to get rid of the insects that hop from plant to plant sucking the nutrients out of them. 

The side effect of all this lanternfly attention is that behavioral experts have noticed for a while a phenomenon on the internet known as ASMR – which is a sort of low-grade euphoria that people experience when viewing certain video or hearing audio content. 

A TikTok influencer, Liv Volker, has millions of likes on her account about killing the flies. She shows videos of different methods of killing them. She says people get a charge out of it. Because of the “brain-tingling sensation” that people get when they view the videos, content creators are tagging their posts so they attract people who enjoy those types of videos.

She said that some people enjoy watching the flies captured in a bottle and find it calming. 

In fact, a genre of videos intended to induce ASMR has emerged on YouTube, with millions being published, with the intention of creating the tingling sensation that usually begins on the scalp and moves down the back of the neck and upper spine.

As strange as it may sound, environmental experts who want to lower the lanternfly populations are happy about the attention.

A study at Pennsylvania State University found that a lanternfly invasion could hurt Pennsylvania’s economy by endangering 5,000 jobs and could cost over a half a million dollars in damages, in a year!

And that’s not including the costs of getting rid of the pest if you’re a homeowner or business owner. 

In New York City, there is a “kill-on-sight” campaign to kill the bugs that are threatening plants in the eastern US.  It has affected the New York State wine country crops. 

It’s also a messy bug, and leaves behind a sticky excretion called honeydew that can be found on patio furniture.

People are being inspired to stomp on and squish the bugs. 

People who are against killing bugs may be protesting. Others… not so much.