A memoir by Harri Virkkula, Memory 1 of Bytes of Memory.

STOMP! 

Five seconds ago, the camp counselors announced it was pool time. But I didn’t want to go into the pool yet. Lantern flies could be invading and destroying our trees! I rushed over to the wall ball court’s less precious side. More of our “club” came to join. This was our first meeting of the Official Pest Control Club, or Pest Control for short. Last year, we used grape-flavored Gatorade and hot water after the lantern flies met our shoes. This year was different, though. The club members also wanted to go to the pool. We devised the plan: Most days we would be here, otherwise we would go to our lantern fly graveyard.

You might be thinking: Why do we want to kill these animals? Well, the Lantern Fly is an invasive species and can kill trees in just a week. Unfortunately, the lantern flies were extra jumpy today.  “Mia, I think we need more traps,” I suggest, adding sunscreen spray to preserve a dead body. “Another to-do is water guns.” Water guns are one of our best ways to kill many lantern flies. One sprinkle around the hive, and the traffic of red insects is dead bodies. Emma, the crafty twin, comes over with what we need. She overheard and went right to work. Good. Now those mean pests will learn not to mess with us! I think with a nice smile. Today’s going to be great.

I jinxed that! We found a new hive blooming with red lantern flies. “AAH!” We scream, running for our lives. I shout to Mia and Emma, “Get the supplies and I’ll hold ‘em off!” They go get materials, and I get my sunscreen spray. Say hello to my little friend. I smirk. The mist of sunscreen goes onto the ground, looking like it rained. Our members come and see what I did. I killed one of the big ones! What’s a big one? Well, one day, we came up with this theory. Millions of lanternflies are normal. Then there are big ones, which are super hard kills. Then there is the royalty. Made up of the king and queen’s family, it’s not super big.

After some more killing, we go to the pool. Wow, that was fun! Today was the best day of killing ever.