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News Release 6-15-2001

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136,900 ACRES TREATED FOR GYPSY MOTH

For Immediate Release June 15, 2001

CHARLESTON, WV — According to Commissioner of Agriculture Gus R. Douglass, a total of 136,900 acres of forested and forested residential land has been treated in an effort to reduce the economic impact of gypsy moths in the following 15 counties that are part of the Cooperative State-County-Landowner (CSCL) Program: Jefferson, Berkeley, Morgan, Hampshire, Mineral, Hardy, Grant, Pendleton, Pocahontas, Preston, Monongalia, Brooke, Marshall, Harrison and Upshur. The Program includes the West Virginia Department of Agriculture (WVDA), USDA Forest Service (USDA-FS), West Virginia University Cooperative Extension Service, county commissions and private landowners. The Program entails landowners pay 57 percent of the actual cost of application and insecticide and the USDA-FS covers the other 43 percent of this cost. Treatment ran from May 2 to May 23.

The insect growth regulator Dimilin (diflubenzuron) was used on 130,139 acres and Btk (Bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki) was applied to 6,241 acres. Another insect growth regulator, Mimic 2LV, was used on 520 acres in Monongalia County as a field trial.

WVDA Plant Industries Assistant Director J. Douglas Hacker said that 289,772 acres were signed up and surveyed for gypsy moth egg masses during 2000. Of this, 228,992 acres qualified for treatment, but some landowner/managers chose not to treat, which reduced the final treatment figure to the 136,900-acre figure given above. "We are already getting reports of gypsy moth defoliation in areas that were not treated," said Hacker. The WVDA and Cooperative Extension Service will start taking requests for signup for the 2002 CSCL Suppression Program July 1.

The Department also treated 75 acres with Dimilin in Jackson County at an isolated infestation under the WVDA Gypsy Moth Regulatory Program.

The USDA-FS treated 14,365 acres of the Monongahela National Forest with Btk. A total of 565 acres were treated with a single application and 13,800 acres were treated with a double application.
The final portion of the 2000 program, the Gypsy Moth Slow the Spread (STS) Program, will treat approximately 36,729 acres in the southern portion of the state with pheromone flakes. These flakes are designed to disrupt the successful mating of the gypsy moth. This treatment will take place sometime between June 15 and June 29 in Kanawha, Fayette, Summers, Greenbrier and Mercer Counties. The STS Program is a cooperative program between the WVDA and the USDA-FS.

For more information, contact Jan Hacker, Assistant Director, WVDA Plant Industries Division, 304/558-2212 or by e-mail, jhacker@ag.state.wv.us.

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