PEST THREATENS AREA OAK TREES GYPSY MOTHS FOUND IN RURAL WOODLAND.Byline: Cecilia Chan Staff Writer MEINERS OAKS - A voracious leaf-eating pest with a fondness for oaks has been discovered in a semirural area west of Ojai, officials said Tuesday. The Ventura County Agricultural Commission has set out 80 traps in a 4-square-mile radius of Meiners Oaks, where two adult male gypsy Gypsy - Specification and verification of concurrent systems software. Message passing using named mailboxes. Separately compilable units: routine (procedure, function, or process), type and constant definition, each with a list of access rights. ["Report on the Language Gypsy", A.L. Ambler et al, UT Austin ICSCS-CMP-1976-08-1]. moths were discovered Thursday. The pests were caught in traps regularly set out by the department for monitoring. ``Our main concern is our shade trees,'' said county Agricultural Commissioner Earl McPhail. ``To the ag industry it's not much of a pest. It's mainly in the urban areas and forest.'' The traps will be checked weekly until early fall to determine if there is an infestation infestation /in·fes·ta·tion/ (-fes-ta´shun) parasitic attack or subsistence on the skin and/or its appendages, as by insects, mites, or ticks; sometimes used to denote parasitic invasion of the organs and tissues, as by helminths. or if the discovery was an isolated incident, McPhail said. ``If we find nothing else, it's an isolated incident,'' McPhail said. ``If we find more we will have to figure out what can be done.'' If there is an infestation, the naturally occurring Bacillus thuringiensis - or Bt - is commonly used to combat the pests, he said. Bt is sprayed from the ground onto trees, where the pests ingest the substance and die, he said. ``It's a very safe pesticide,'' McPhail said. The moths - which defoliate millions of acres of forest annually, mostly on the East Coast - move about by hitchhiking aboard cars, trailers and campers mostly as egg masses. They also feast on apple, alder, aspen, basswood basswood: see linden., hawthorn, willow, birch, pine and spruce trees. This isn't the first time the gypsy moth gypsy moth, common name for a moth, Lymantria dispar, of the tussock moth family, native to Europe and Asia. Its caterpillars, or larvae, defoliate deciduous and evergreen trees and shrubs. Introduced from Europe into Massachusetts c.1869, the European gypsy moth became a serious pest within 20 years. Asian gypsy moths were introduced to the Northwest by Russian ships in 1991 and to North Carolina by a ship returning from Germany in 1993. has been discovered in the county. In 1989, an adult male was found in Thousand Oaks. McPhail said the female moths lay their eggs on just about anything, including outdoor furniture. The species go through one life cycle a year. The eggs hatch in the late spring and early summer. The caterpillars gorge themselves on the leaves, stripping the tree of its foliage. ``They eat the leaves and there's no way for photosynthesis to take place so the tree eventually dies,'' McPhail said. Residents are asked to keep an eye out for the pest. Signs are extensive defoliation of trees, caterpillars with blue and red dots on their bodies feeding on leaves or on branches, and buff-colored egg masses on tree trunks. To report sighting of the gypsy moth, call: Ventura County Agricultural Commission: (805) 933-3165 or (805) 647-5931. |
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