2016 Gypsy Moth Update

2016 Gypsy Moth Update

Susan Allen
Susan Allen
With your Fruit Grower Report, I’m Susan Allen. Harvest is winding down so it’s a good time to reflect on what went right and what didn’t. Gypsy moths are always a worry, so I asked Karla Salp, Community Outreach & Environmental Education Specialist from Washington State Department of Agriculture for an update

SALP: We are just finished picking up our traps for this season, so the results here are not final, but I can share with you some of the trends we have seen with our trapping for 2016. We have some good news and bad news; the good news is that we have had no Asian gypsy moth’s caught. The Asian gypsy moth as you know has the potential the potential to spread more quickly and be devastating to the trees in Washington state, so it is really good news that we have no Asian gypsey moths this year.

The European Gypsy Moth is a different story.

SALP: The bad news, however, is that we have had a wide distribution of our catches in 2016. So we have caught European gypsy moths in many locations partially throughout Western Washington but also two locations in Eastern Washington at Indian John Hill and the Spokane area. There might be an explanation as to why there is such a wide dispersal of these catches; that is because back East they have had their largest outbreak of European gypsy moths since the 1980’s.

She says their next steps are to conduct and egg mass survey to help determine if there will be treatment areas in 2017.

 

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