Good News Out of Oregon

Good News Out of Oregon. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.

For the fifth time this decade, the number of gypsy moths annually trapped in Oregon is in single digits. That's good news as the state continues its battle against the invading insect. Approximately 12-thousand gypsy moth traps were placed statewide this summer but only a handful of the plant-eating insects were detected, according to entomologist Helmuth Rogg of the Oregon Department of Agriculture.

ROGG: A very quiet year, actually. We've only found six gypsy moths in all of Oregon. So that's very positive. It shows that we have a very good early detection program working out there and that we do a very good job of eradicating small pockets of gypsy moth populations in the state as soon as we detect them.

Last year, 12 gypsy moths were detected in Oregon, seven of them in southeast Eugene- leading to a gypsy moth eradication project earlier this spring. A high density of traps were placed in that area afterwards.

ROGG:  We did not find anything in Eugene. So that means it is successfully eradicated for this year. We will have another delimitation trapping next year just to confirm that this small pocket is gone.

Of the six detections this year, three were in Portland, two in Aurora, and one in Clackamas. Based on this year's results, ODA does not expect to propose any spraying next spring- only the fourth time since the gypsy moth program got started in the 1980s that Oregon will not have an eradication project. Rogg says based on the low number of detections this year, ODA does not expect to propose a gypsy moth eradication project in 2010.

ROGG: We're pretty confident that we will not have a gypsy moth treatment program come up for next year. In particular, not in Eugene.

Rogg says a handful of gypsy moths were detected this year as ODA placed nearly 12-thousand traps statewide. None of the detections appear to be serious.

ROGG: We did find six individuals in individual traps. This happens for the reason that people bring them in on their cars or cargo that comes from infested areas in the eastern US. But they might not survive and establish themselves as small populations.

That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.