State will take to skies in bid to decimate moths

CELINA - For the first time in several years, the Ohio Department of Agriculture in June will apply aerial treatments to selected forests in Auglaize and Mercer counties to decimate gypsy moth populations.

"This is a very destructive moth. It's a defoliator," David Adkins, ODA's gypsy moth program manager, told the newspaper Thursday night at an open house in Celina. "The key thing is it feeds on over 300 different species of trees, with oak being the preferred. But it will attack spruce, white pine, maple and a lot of other trees."

ODA during two years of trapping and analysis located concentrated gypsy moth populations in three area forests - a 457-acre parcel north of Celina, a 177-acre parcel near Cridersville and a 344-acre parcel near Uniopolis. All property owners have been notified of the scheduled treatment, he said.

Adkins said ODA has the authority to treat for gypsy moths on private property. The area in Mercer County, between U.S. 127 and Celina-Mendon Road, includes four privately owned properties.

"We do the trappings to isolate where the population's located, and we've determined that the population is in (these forests)," Adkins said.

In June, before the insects emerge from the pupal stage, an airplane will drop pheromone mating disruption plastic flakes on the targeted forests, he said.

"(The female moth) emits a pheromone to draw the male to her," he explained.

The flakes will saturate the air with the pheromones so the male can't find the female, he said.

"And she ends up laying unfertilized eggs and that's how we reduce the population," Adkins said.

According to ODA, single application treatments will be made from 50 to 100 feet above the treetops. The process will take 30 minutes.

ODA will return next year to reassess the moth population.

A single egg mass, ranging in size from a quarter to a half-dollar and velvety to the touch, can contain as many as 1,000 eggs, according to Adkins.  

"So a population can explode very quickly, so that's why we're trying to be proactive, get out here and watch the populations before they get out of hand," he said.

Gypsy moths can severely defoliate trees, preventing photosynthesis and root rejuvenation and leave them vulnerable to other insects and diseases. If untreated, entire forests could be wiped out in three years, he said.
The invasive, European-based moths were first detected in Ohio in 1971 in Ashtabula County, Adkins said. ODA, under the auspices of the USDA Forest Service, began a statewide effort to fight the moth in the late 1990s.
"We started in 1998. We trapped the whole state and then three years later in 2001, we started our treatment program," he said. "This is a proactive program where we're trapping, we're trying to find the population before it gets to the defoliating level."