State considers battling apple moths with sterile apple moths

<p>Federal agriculture officials have begun discussions with grape growers in the Carneros wine region about conducting the state’s first pilot program to release sterile light brown apple moths in infested lands on the border of Sonoma and Napa counties.</p><p>While no decision has been made, agricultural leaders in both counties are voicing support for a field trial to provide data for what may become the main method for eradicating the apple moth in California.</p><p>“What they need is some on-the-ground information,” said Dave Whitmer, Napa County’s agricultural commissioner. He said farmers and environmentalists have told him they support the use of sterile moths, and the trial could provide “some pest management benefit” to growers in the Carneros region.</p><p>The apple moth, an insect originally from Australia, was first confirmed in California two years ago. The federal government has allocated $75 million to fight the pest, which officials maintain can attack more than 250 crops and such native species as cypress and oak trees. The larvae damages fruit by feeding on the plant surface. Ag officials say the moth also can deform young oak and cypress seedlings and damage new growth in forest canopies.</p><p>The state has found 25 apple moths in Sonoma County and currently has established quarantine areas near Sebastopol and in the south county — the latter lands within a boundary that extends east through Napa County nearly to Benicia. The area suggested for the trial lies within that quarantine area.</p><p>Critics dispute that the moth is a threat. Last year they succeeded in stopping government efforts to conduct aerial spraying with a synthetic pheromone designed to disrupt mating. More recently, critics have urged the federal government to downgrade the danger level of the pest, a step that would end the quarantines and the accompanying rules meant to ensure crops going to market are free of the pest.</p><p>Instead of spraying, state and federal officials last year announced that they would pursue a program to release millions of sterile apple moths. That technique, which would prevent the insect from producing offspring, has been used with such pests as the Mediterranean fruit fly and the pink bollworm.</p><p>Larry Hawkins, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said this is the first time officials have spoken with property owners about their willingness to take part in such a trial for the apple moth.</p><p>“The reception that we got from growers in the Napa and Sonoma area seemed to be pretty positive,” Hawkins said.</p><p>The aim is to gather data on how far the sterile moths travel, how long they survive in the wild and how often moths would need to be released in the same area to be effective.</p><p>The scientists are interested in using an area of about 1,000 acres, perhaps 2 to 3 square miles. The Carneros area, said Hawkins, has advantages of good access and foliage that reaches a uniform height, namely that of a grapevine on a trellis.</p><p>If the officials decide to proceed, they first will need to make some environmental studies of the area. Hawkins said his agency probably would be able to start the trial by early summer.</p><p>Sonoma County supervisors and farm leaders have urged state and federal agriculture officials to take some action against the pest. They have noted that to date relatively few moths have appeared in the county, but nearly 1,200 have been trapped in nearby Marin County and more than 25,000 have been collected in San Francisco.</p><p>Cathy Neville, Sonoma County’s agricultural commissioner, said the field trial would demonstrate that both local officials and growers are proactive in battling the moth.</p><p>“I think it’s really important and I think we’re going to get some really good information,” Neville said.</p><p>Peter Nissen, president of the Napa County Farm bureau and the manager of a vineyard in the area under consideration, said the field trial has merit and might help provide a viable alternative to pesticides.</p>