ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Monday, December 30, 1996              TAG: 9612300042
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C-5  EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press

GYPSY MOTH DAMAGE IN CHECK VIRGINIA DIDN'T LOSE EVEN 1 ACRE IN '96

Gypsy moths, which reached a destructive peak in 1995 in ravaging close to 1 million acres in Virginia, seem finally under control.

Agriculture officials said Friday the state didn't lose a single acre to the pests in 1996.

However, the list of localities whose forests are quarantined because of the moths will expand by 16 in January. Ninety places on the list are required to notify state agriculture officials when logs are transported.

The moth, brought to the United States from Europe about the turn of the century, eats the leaves of oak and hickory trees. Without leaves during the green season, the trees can't grow, and they can die after several seasons, said Phil Eggborn, a program manager for the state Department of Agriculture.

Eggborn said the moths flourished in the United States because there are fewer predators keeping the population in check than in their native habitat. ``The natural controls require a longer period of evolution to catch up'' with most non-native species, he said.

So the state imported a European fungus that has been effective in battling the moths overseas.

``We released some back in the early 1990s,'' Eggborn said. Forest rangers sowed the forest floor with the fungus by hand.

While the fungus may have helped, Eggborn said, most people think the moths will rebound.

``We don't see this as a permanent answer,'' he said.

LENGTH: Short :   37 lines