
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 27, 1995                   TAG: 9504270086
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

GYPSY MOTH PROGRAM EXPANDS

The annual assault on Virginia's gypsy moth population, which begins today, will cover about 30,000 more acres than the 100,000 sprayed last year, the state agriculture board was told.

Phil Eggborn, program manager for the state's Office of Plant Protection, said the first day of aerial spraying is set for Prince William, Fauquier and Culpeper counties.

Gypsy moths have spread southwest from Northern Virginia over the past decade. Two-thirds of the state has some gypsy moth infestation, with the worst problems in Northern Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley.

The pests feast on leaves - oaks are their favorite - and defoliation can kill the trees.

``The last several years, Virginia has been the state with the most defoliation,'' Eggborn told the Board of Agriculture and Consumer Services. ``It probably will remain so, because we have a lot of good host habitat.''

The Virginia Department of Forestry says gypsy moths defoliated 454,475 acres of forestland last summer.

The suppression program is limited to residential areas, Eggborn said, because foresters believe it is best to let forest infestations ``run their course.''

Nineteen localities are participating in the suppression program this year, Eggborn said. Rockbridge County is participating for the first time.

Although gypsy moth infestations continue to spread toward the southwest, Eggborn said the pace has slowed inexplicably. ``Ten years ago, we would have expected the entire state to be infested by now,'' he said.

Also, gypsy moths have all but disappeared from some previously infested areas in the Piedmont and on the eastern slopes of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and no one is sure why, Eggborn said.

Still, there is plenty of work for the two companies that have contracted with the state to apply the natural bacteria Bt - Bacillus thuringiensis - on infested property. Three helicopters and five airplanes are used in the spraying.

The U.S. Forest Service pays for half of the nearly $3 million program. The state pays about $200,000, and the localities pay the rest.

Eggborn said gypsy moths were brought to the United States in 1869 to cross with silkworms in an effort to create better silk. The experiment failed, some moths escaped from a laboratory in Massachusetts, ``and they've been spreading ever since,'' Eggborn said.

The pests thrive on a variety of foliage, and eradication costs are prohibitive, Eggborn said.

Localities participating in the program this year are Alexandria and the counties of Albemarle, Arlington, Augusta, Clarke, Culpeper, Fairfax, Fauquier, Frederick, Greene, Highland, Nelson, Page, Prince William, Rockbridge, Rockingham, Shenandoah, Stafford and Warren.

by CNB