Gypsy moths from Wisconsin and Michigan are invading Illinois at a greater rate than in past years. New areas of northern Illinois are to be treated to stop the moth from further damaging trees… but native butterflies will also be killed by the spray. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Transcript
Gypsy moths from Wisconsin and Michigan are invading Illinois at a greater rate than past years. New areas of northern Illinois are to be treated to stop the moth from further damaging trees… but native butterflies will also be killed by the spray. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Gypsy moths will eat the leaves of nearly any type of tree. This year, as they have for the past two decades, Illinois officials will be spraying a bacteria in selected parts of Chicago’s western suburbs. Any caterpillar that eats vegetation sprayed will be killed. Jim Cavanaugh is the Gypsy Moth Operations Coordinator for the state Department of Agriculture. He says the spraying won’t have any lasting damage on anything but the gypsy moth.
“The studies have shown that for naturally occurring or indigenous, if you will, butterflies and moths, that the following year their populations will make up the difference of any depression of the population in the spray year.”
Because of the timing and targeted spraying, the bacteria have a more lethal effect on the gypsy moth than other insects.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.