Gypsy Moth Trouble

The Washington State Department of Agriculture is calling it “the worst forest pest insect ever to enter the United States.” The gypsy moth has not been a problem in the state for the last 14 years but according to WSDA’s Karla Salp, that may be changing.

SALP: We had a much larger catch than we normally do and in particular we caught thirty-two moths total but of those moths ten were Asian gypsy moths and those are even worse than the European gypsy moth. The Asian gypsy moth hasn’t been caught in Washington State since 1999 when we caught one and like I said this year, we caught ten.

Salp talks about why the Asian moth is worse than the European variety.

SALP: A couple of reasons; one, the female gypsy moth can fly unlike the European gypsy moth so while the European gypsy moth populations tend to spread rather slowly, the Asian gypsy moth populations can spread very rapidly because the female can fly up to 20 miles. The second is that the Asian gypsy moth can also eat evergreen which the European gypsy moth doesn’t really do.

And she talks about what course of action the WSDA is taking.

SALP: We have put together a proposal for treating seven sites in Western Washington with an organic pesticide called BTK. There’ll be aerial applications over about 10,500 acres including Tacoma and Seattle.

And that’s Washington Ag Today. I’m Greg Martin, thanks for listening on the Ag Information Network of the West.