Story originally printed in the Tomah Journal or online at www.tomahjournal.com
Published - Thursday, May 29, 2008
Gypsy moth spraying continues, DNR calls moths a 'huge source of environmental problem'
Sometimes you have to get up early to get a jump on the enemy.
It was just after 6 a.m. Wednesday, and Vicki Feigi had been on a hill south of Tomah for more than two hours when her cell phone rang. On the other end was a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources pilot, circling above.
A crop duster flies below the tree line south of Tomah,Wis., on Irondale Avenue spraying insecticides to kill gypsy moths for the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture.
“Hello, John,” she said. “It’s one to two, 46 degrees and the leaf is still dry.”
Feigi, a plant pest and disease specialist with the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, was acting as a ground spotter, monitoring the wind speed, temperature — an unseasonable 36 degrees when she arrived — and humidity, in a pitched battle against a moth.
A few minutes later, there was a drone in the distance, and then a yellow crop duster buzzed overhead, trailing a mist of pesticide intended to kill gypsy moths and stop their westward spread.
State agencies like the DNR and ag department combat hundreds of invasive species such as the gypsy moth, whose caterpillar offspring can strip the leaves from whole sections of oak, maple, birch and other trees and forest shrubs.
“Invasives are taking more and more of our attention,” said Andrea Diss-Torrance, coordinator of the DNR’s gypsy moth suppression program. “It’s getting to be just a huge source of environmental problem.”
The gypsy moth is a serious environmental, economic and quality-of-life issue, according to the ag department, which spends about $2 million a year in state and federal money combating the moths.
Because it didn’t develop in North America, it has no natural enemies to curtail its population.
Brought to the U.S. in 1869, the gypsy moth has spread from Massachusetts into 19 states as far west as Wisconsin, where it first was detected in the 1970s. It now is established in the eastern part of the state, where the DNR works to quell cyclical population outbreaks.
Because female moths can’t fly, the species primarily spreads through human activity, said Christopher Lettau, supervisor of the ag department’s gypsy moth program. That’s why the state has quarantined counties in the east and regulates shipment of products such as plants and furniture.
West of the quarantine line, which runs along the eastern edge of Jackson, Monroe, Vernon and Richland counties, the ag department targets pockets where the moths have begun to appear.
Seasonal pesticide spraying started about two weeks ago and will continue through the end of June on about 90,000 acres.
All stories copyright 2006 Tomah Journal and other attributed sources.