Bay Area begins moth eradication

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Feb 22, 2008 | by Julia Scott

Bay Area officials are taking action against the light brown apple moth amid growing local controversy over the pheromones used to disrupt the destructive insect's mating cycle.

Starting Monday officials with the California Department of Food and Agriculture will hang a series of red "twist ties" coated with the pheromone in trees along parts of Pescadero and Half Moon Bay in San Mateo County, where the moth has been found -- 250 twist ties per acre within a 650-foot radius around each infested site.

In August, the department plans to start aerial spraying of several Bay Area parks and cities where the incidence of the light brown apple moth is too high to make the twist-tie solution effective. Those locations include Daly City, South San Francisco, Colma, Brisbane, San Bruno, and the northern tip of Pacifica.

The light brown apple moth, inadvertently imported from New Zealand, first appeared in Alameda County in March 2007 and has spread to 252 square miles across the Bay Area. It feeds on more than 250 varieties of plants in its larval stage and is deemed a major threat to the state's agriculture industry.

Although the Peninsula has only been lightly affected by the infestation so far, county Agricultural Commissioner Gail Raabe says now is the time to make sure it stays that way.

"If other countries see that we are not working to get rid of this, the whole county, the whole state, would be under a quarantine from here on out."

Raabe supports both the twist-tie method, a low-impact way to discourage the mating patterns of the moths without killing them, and the aerial spraying.

Concerns over the potential health risks of spraying urban areas with a new kind of pheromone has drawn such intense opposition among residents of San Francisco, Marin and Alameda counties that on Monday, state Sen. Carole Migden called for a moratorium on any aerial spraying until the pheromone product can be proved safe for human exposure.

The light brown apple moth was deemed such a threat last year that the U.S. Department of Agriculture obtained an exemption from the federal Environmental Protection Agency to begin using Checkmate LBAM-F right away, rather than subject it to analysis and registration by the state Department of Pesticide Regulation.

, according to state department spokesperson Veda Federighi.

Federighi said such exemptions are common for pesticides used to combat moth infestations, but are not commonly issued directly to the USDA from another federal agency.

The EPA's database of federally registered pesticides does not contain Checkmate LBAM-F.

Scientists in New Zealand are testing several new formulations of the pesticide; one as a waxy flake that would stick to trees. The goal is to find a product that will last longer and not require re- application after 30 days, Hoffman said. It is not clear whether the USDA intends to seek an exemption for that product as well.

Staff writer Julia Scott can be reached at 650-348-4340 or at julia.scott@bayareanewsgroup.com.