Public information meeting to discuss Gypsy Moth management plan scheduled for April 17 in Lansing

The Iowa Gypsy Moth Management Team will be conducting public meetings in northeastern Iowa in mid-April to discuss gypsy moth management actions for summer 2013. The meetings are free and open to the public.
Among those meetings is one scheduled for Wednesday, April 17 in Lansing. That local meeting will begin at 7 p.m. at the Kerndt Brothers Savings Bank Community Center, located at 395 Main Street in Lansing.
The European gypsy moth, a well-known pest of trees, has been in the eastern United States for over 150 years. Iowa has monitored the westward expansion of the gypsy moth since 1970 using pheromone traps. Two hundred twenty-five moths were caught in these traps during 2012, indicating that two pockets of this invasive insect are developing in eastern Iowa.
“The gypsy moth caterpillar has a ravenous appetite for the tree foliage of several hundred species, but oak leaves are their favorite food,” said Mark Shour, entomologist with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach . “Without corrective action, repeated defoliation of trees by the gypsy moth can cause tree death or weaken trees to attack by diseases and other insects.”
Iowa is a part of the federal "Slow the Spread" program, a project that has successfully slowed the rate of the advancing front of gypsy moth, and has limited moth defoliations. Iowa proposes to limit establishment of gypsy moth in Iowa with use of an aerial application of mating disruption pheromone. Applications via aircraft fly-over are proposed in two separate blocks in Iowa within Allamakee and Dubuque counties in late June or early July of this year.

The Allamakee County aerial application will take place just south of New Albin, covering a nearly 11-acre area to the west of Iowa Highway 26 and to the south of Iowa River Drive (see map accompanying this article). For more information about the gypsy moth management plan, including an address check system involved in the treatment areas, visit http://iowagypsymoth.com.
“The pheromone is specific to gypsy moths so it does not affect plants, humans or other animals, including moths and butterflies,” said Robin Pruisner, state entomologist with IDALS. “The use of pheromone treatments will help delay the establishment of gypsy moth in Iowa by several years.”
The Iowa Gypsy Moth Management Team is an interagency, cooperative effort of Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, Iowa Department of Natural Resources, United States Department of Agriculture - Forest Service, and United States Department of Agriculture - APHIS, Plant Protection and Quarantine.