Pest Trapping Pt 1

Pest Trapping Pt 1

Bob Larson
Bob Larson
With today’s Fruit Grower Report, I’m Bob Larson. Efforts are underway to hunt down, trap and remove several pests that threaten our agricultural industry like Asian Giant Hornet, apple maggot, Japanese beetle, and the spongy moth, formerly known as the gypsy moth.

Karla Salp, Acting Communications Director at the Washington Department of Agriculture, says it’s that time of year …

SALP … “Yeah, we already have trappers putting out a few traps for Japanese Beetle and that will be picking up over the coming weeks.”

It’s unclear, Salp says exactly how many traps will be deployed …

SALP … “But they will be putting out even more traps this year, compared to last year, for Japanese Beetle. We did have those 24,000 beetles, that were Japanese Beetles, that were caught in the Grandview area. Ans so they’ve actually started, just this week, the eradication project which is going to be a multi-year endeavor.”

And, Salp says the traps will probably expand a little beyond Grandview this year …

SALP … “Yeah, our trapping I think is going to extend a little bit further, but we only have one year of trapping so far. So, we know where they were last year and so we don’t have a great feel for whether that is expanding or shrinking.”

It’s a different approach this year …

SALP … “Last year we were not able to conduct an eradication even though we knew we were going to have large numbers of beetles being trapped. So, it will be interesting to see what happens this year with the treatments that are

starting this and then the trapping as well.”

WSDA is still asking for folks to report any sighting of any questionable critter you see and pictures are necessary.

Tune in tomorrow for more.

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