Oregon to spray for gypsy moth
Sunday, April 29, 2007 2:13 AM PDT
BEND (AP) — Oregon’s battle against the gypsy moth spreads spray east of the Cascade Range this week at a site where the insects arrived after hitchhiking across the country in a 1967 Chevrolet bought on eBay.
In 2005, the Oregon Department of Agriculture trapped one gypsy moth in an area of north Bend, between U.S. highways 20 and 97.
In 2006, traps caught 57 of the insects, an unusually large number to find at one site, said Kathleen Johnson, supervisor of the Oregon Department of Agriculture’s insect pest prevention and management section.
The gypsy moth caterpillars, or larvae, munch on leaves and can lay waste to forests.
They have expanded their range to the south and the Midwest, and they travel West on vehicles, as well.
Gypsy moths have turned up in Oregon almost annually since a first detection in Lake Oswego in 1979.
‘‘Most years, there’s at least a million acres that’s defoliated back East. In 1982, for example, it was 12 million acres,’’ Johnson said. ‘‘The defoliation is pretty striking.’’
In Bend, the department plans to spray 533 acres early Wednesday, followed by additional applications on May 16 and May 30, weather permitting. The department has sprayed for gypsy moths before in Oregon, but this is the first treatment east of the Cascades.
A helicopter will lay down the bacterial pesticide Bacillus thuringiensis kurstaki, she said.
Johnson said health officials recommend that people in the spray area stay inside until half an hour afterward, wait until the pesticide has dried before touching vegetation, cover outside furniture or play equipment or hose it down afterward, and wash their hands if they touch the pesticide.
People with weakened immune systems should consult with their doctors, she said.
But she said studies have concluded that the pesticide, which is naturally occurring, has no detrimental effects on people or other mammals.
The insecticide works by attacking the gut of a caterpillar, making a hole that allows infections to develop. It works in the alkaline environment of a caterpillar’s gut, she said, but not in the acidic gut of people, cats, dogs and other animals.
The Agriculture Department finished its first spraying in St. Helens in Western Oregon on Wednesday, she said, and everything went smoothly.
