STATE CANCELS MOTH SPRAYING: Sterile insects will be released to stop breeding; pheromones still planned for remote areas

Jun 20, 2008 (The Monterey County Herald - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- SYCP | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Spray no more. At least not where people live.

After widespread protest, the state Department of Food and Agriculture announced Thursday it will no longer attempt to eradicate the light brown apple moth solely through aerial spraying of a pheromone designed to sexually confuse the invasive species.

Instead, the state will turn to sterile insects to combat the Australian pest, said Food and Agriculture Secretary A.G. Kawamura.

Sterile adult apple moths will be released in areas where the moths are known to exist and successfully breed. Inundating a reproducing moth population with sterile members of the species creates competition between virile and sterile moths. The higher the ratio of sterile moths, the more likely a virile moth is to attempt to mate with a sterile moth.

"The objective is to get many more sterile moths into the environment so that the sterile moths can breed out the wild moths," said Steve Lyle, Food and Agriculture spokesman.

Both male and female moths will be released, Lyle said.

The sterile insect technique has been used to control fruit fly populations in California, Kawamura said.

Abandoning aerial spraying in populated areas, including the Monterey Peninsula, may ease concerns for residents wary of a chemical substance being sprayed on their neighborhoods.

But it is does not immediately mend what Rep. Sam Farr, D-Carmel, called a "public relations fiasco" that has plagued the eradication campaign since spraying began

over the Peninsula in September.

"I'm relieved that they're stopping the aerial spraying," said Mike Lynberg, a Pacific Grove resident who opposed the sprayings. "But I don't think they have done it out of concern for public health and public safety. I think they have done it because their hand was forced and because there was such political, legal and public opposition."

Lynberg said he tallied 643 reports from residents of Monterey and Santa Cruz counties who complained about getting sick after pheromones were sprayed over urban areas. Some of the complaints were submitted to an e-mail address, a post office box and a Web site set up to receive such complaints, Lynberg said. Others were obtained from the Department of Food and Agriculture, he said.

Kawamura said the switch in eradication strategy is not a concession that aerial spraying is hazardous, though he did say the aerial spraying was a public relations catastrophe due to poor communication between the government and the public.

"The dialogue has not been very good to (explain) why we are all beneficiaries" of eradicating the apple moth, Kawamura said.

He said the state will continue to improve its public outreach "so that people can understand why we do eradications. We will continue to use the best tools we can find. California will always be at the forefront of that."

The first sterile moths are expected to be released in early 2009, Kawamura said. About 500,000 sterile adult moths could be released per day when the program begins. By 2011, the state expects to be able to release 20 million moths per day, Kawamura said.

"It seems like a lot, but that is the number that covers the area and allows for these programs to be successful," Kawamura said.

Aerial pheromone spraying will continue to be an option in agricultural areas and in uninhabited areas, such as "ridge tops you can't get to any other way," Lyle said.

Kawamura loosely defined urban areas as populated areas, or areas accessed by roads. Those areas will no longer be subject to spraying during the eradication effort.

Pheromones will continue to be used as part of the twist-tie approach. Twist ties will be used in "isolated areas infested with very few moths," Lyle said.

Farr, who organized several meetings during the past month between federal and state officials in an effort to re-evaluate the eradication program, said the apple moth is a problem that needs to be resolved for the sake of the state's agriculture industry.

"But we don't need to do aerial spraying to get rid of it," Farr said. "We asked for better tools and a better plan to eradicate. I think that was laid out" on Thursday.

Laith Agha can be reached at lagha@montereyherald.com

or 646-4358.

To read background from the U.S. Department of Agriculture on the light brown apple moth, see www.aphis.usda.gov/plant_health/plant_pest_info/lba_moth/index.shtml

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