Early signs of gypsy moth infestation found in Eugene
By Laura RillosEUGENE, Ore..--State field technicians have found seven gypsy moths in Eugene this August, another trapped northeast of Portland. The most recent was trapped Wednesday morning, near Dillard Road and Garnet Street in South Eugene. That's the same site field technician Jeff Harrison found three months in a single trap earlier this moth--and two single moths in traps last year. State officials say these are the early signs of a gypsy moth infestation, which can destroy thousands of acres of forest if not caught in time. The culprit is actually the gypsy moth caterpillar, which eats tree leaves. If the caterpillars eat enough, they can kill trees and entire forests over time. So the State Department of Agriculture takes the gypsy moth very seriously. In the 1980s, Eugene was sprayed with a biological pesticide after thousands of moths were trapped in the area. South Eugene was also sprayed in 2004. It hasn't come to that this year, but state officials have set 18-thousand traps across Oregon. Many of those are in Eugene's Amazon Headwaters area, where the moths have been found this year. They hope the moths will lead them to the source of the infestation, which is usually an egg sag that was brought over from the East Coast. Typically, the moth catches a ride via an egg sac laid on a vehicle that spent time on the East Coast. For example, last year's gypsy moth infestation in Shady Cove, Oregon, was traced to a family that attended a reunion in Pennsylvania. The family noticed caterpillars were crawling all over their vehicle during the reunion. An investigator in Oregon found an egg mass and empty pupil cases. "All these other big catches we've had we've been able to trace back to the egg mass someone brought from back east," said Jeff Harrison. "This one so far leaves us puzzled, we're not sure where they're coming from but we're going to keep looking." The gypsy moth is distinguished by it's furry antennae whereas other moths have stringy anntennae. It also has a black chevron pattern on its wings. |
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