No panic yet over moth

It was just down the street that state food and agriculture personnel caught the first light brown apple moth found in Sonoma County earlier this year.

But even with the discovery of a second moth in the Boyes Hot Springs area this week, Sonoma Mission Gardens manager Lydia Constantini says she's not ready to panic.

"The most important thing is that we all do the best we can," Constantini said. "And I feel that they have a real handle on how to deal with situations like this."

The California Department of Food and Agriculture announced Thursday that tests confirmed an insect trapped Sunday in the Boyes Hot Springs area was indeed a specimen of light brown apple moth.

The moth was trapped less than a mile from another one caught Feb. 15 in the vicinity of Arnold Drive and Craig Avenue, where the nursery Constantini manages is located.

That discovery triggers new inspection and trapping regulations in the discovery area and adds another layer to existing protocols designed to keep other pests out of Sonoma County.

The county is among 10 other California counties now considered infested, CDFA spokesman Steve Lyle said.

They include most Bay Area counties, as well as Monterey, Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz counties, the latter being the most densely infested.

Because the second Sonoma County moth was found within three miles and one life cycle of the first, intensive inspection requirements for crops, plants, cut flowers and other plant materials intended for transport must be conducted, Sonoma County Agricultural Commissioner Lisa Correia said.

But growers and nursery owners affected by new rules will be familiar with the drill because of inspection and certification protocols in place for other pests, such as the glassy-winged sharpshooter and the battle against sudden oak death, Correia said.

"For those individuals this is just one more thing, one additional set of restrictions," Correia said. "So we're in touch with those individuals, and are continuing to make sure they can ship next week."

Tom Nemcik, grower and operations manager for Novavine Grapevine Nursery in Santa Rosa, which ships about 85 percent of its vines out of the county, and about 35 percent to the East Coast, Canada and Mexico, said he was still working out what the quarantine rules will mean for his business.

"If there's a finding on site here, then our life could become hell," he said. "But for now, it's just a little more regulatory hurdles to jump through."

An Australian native, the light brown apple moth feeds on more than 2,000 different host plants, including more than 250 crops.

The California Department of Food and Agriculture says it could prove devastating if allowed to take hold in the state, costing an estimated $160 million to $640 million in annual crop losses.

But controversy over state eradication efforts puts even that claim in dispute. And Sonoma County's new place on the infestation list thrusts it squarely into the ongoing debate over how to get rid of the pest.

Sonoma County likely would be in line for selective eradication measures using pheromone-infused twist ties that saturate the air with male moth attractants, confusing them about where to find females and thus interfering with their reproduction.

The twist ties are credited with eradicating isolated light brown moth populations in Napa and Los Angeles counties, Lyle and Correia said.

The more controversial aerial spraying of synthetic pheromones that hundreds of Central Coast residents claim made them ill was used only in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties last fall because of the density of the infestation there, Lyle said.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced Thursday that there would be no additional spraying until mid-August, when results of animal health tests being conducted in Texas are known.

A Santa Cruz County judge the same day ruled the state violated environmental law by conducting the treatments without first conducting an environmental impact report.

North Coast lawmakers, including Assemblymen Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, and Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, and state Sen. Carole Migden, D-San Francisco, are among those who called for suspension of the spraying before the governor's decision.

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com.