Moth Trapping

Moth Trapping. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

Every year about this time small cardboard traps start appearing in the state. The purpose is to trap and therefore get an idea whether there are certain pests present in an area. One small pest is the gypsy moth that according to John Lundberg, Public Information Officer for the WSDA does a great deal of damage.

LUNDBERG: It attacks literally any leaf bearing tree. And one of the species, the Asian gypsy moth even attacks evergreen trees. Just about any leaf bearing tree is subject to having its leaves denuded by the gypsy moth. It’s a horrendous problem back east.

While the gypsy moth does not attack cherries, apples, pears or other fruit it does attack the tree itself. Lundberg says so far, it has not been a problem here.

LUNDBERG: We have kept them out of this state with a pretty aggressive summer trapping program which ironically the purpose of which is not to eradicate anything, it just tells us where new introductions are because the best way to eradicate them is to treat them with a biological insecticide in the spring so we put out about 24-25,000 traps every summer which we have just done.

Those traps stay up until September and just because a moth is found does not automatically trigger a response.

LUNDBERG: If we get multiple catches over 2 years or more in a relatively small area and it gets pretty scientific or we find evidence as a result of a physical inspection we’ll do of a multiple catch site, either the egg mass itself or the pupae case where it’s discarded it’s old cocoon and gone on to become a moth.

That’s today’s Fruit Grower Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.