11/04/08 Gypsy Moth Season Ends

Gypsy Moth Season Ends. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. Gypsy moth trapping in Oregon has officially ended for 2008 with a final tally of 12 gypsy moths detected statewide. Gypsy moth is an invasive insect species that does tremendous damage to plants and trees. A majority of the 12 detections have taken place in an area that could very well see a gypsy moth spray project next spring, according to Helmuth Rogg, entomologist with the Oregon Department of Agriculture: ROGG: One area where we had to look a little closer was Eugene- southeast Eugene- where we found seven gypsy moth. This is a site where we already had gypsy moth catches in 2007. That's enough information to suggest there is a breeding population of gypsy moth in the area. ODA is expected to propose treating about 640 acres to eradicate the insect pest. That's a far cry from the mid 1980s when nearly a quarter million acres were treated for gypsy moth in Lane County alone. ROGG: Our philosophy now is that we go out early, detect early incursions, and respond quickly with the objective to keep the treatment area as small as possible. Southeast Eugene is the only site that ODA is considering for a spray project next year. One good sign from this year's detection effort- there were no gypsy moths caught this year in Shady Cove of Jackson County, the only site treated in 2008. ROGG: We will have another year of mass trapping in Shady Cove to make sure we got that gypsy moth population. Our usual experience is that two years of negative trapping indicates the population has been eradicated. Rogg says out of the 12 gypsy moths trapped in Oregon this year, seven of them were found in a residential area of southeast Eugene. That indicates there is a breeding population of gypsy moths in the area. ROGG: So what we are at the moment proposing is an area that we will likely treat in the spring of 2009 to eradicate that breeding population before it spreads to further areas in southeast Eugene. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.