The Ohio Department of Agriculture plans to apply aerial treatments in central Ohio on Monday to disrupt the gypsy moth mating process. If weather permits, seven airplanes carrying the treatment will fly 100-200 feet above tree tops to apply the treatment to 45,675 acres in Franklin and Delaware counties.
David Adkins leaned down next to the yellow airplane wing and tapped a small box fixed to the bottom. He explained how, during flight, the device would release green flakes into a spinning fan, spraying them onto the trees below.
“It’s a simple process,” said Adkins, Ohio’s gypsy-moth program manager.
But it’s an important one.
The Ohio Department of Agriculture plans to spray parts of Franklin and Delaware counties on Monday with a treatment that disrupts the gypsy-moth mating process and should slow the destructive pests’ westward spread.
Gypsy moths are an invasive insect brought to Massachusetts in the 1860s by a French scientist who hoped to use them for silk production. Before long, the moths escaped into native forests.
Since 1980, gypsy moths have defoliated 1 million or more forested acres each year and have been identified in most Ohio counties.
“(Gypsy moth caterpillars) can cause significant defoliation by feeding on the leaves of quite a wide range of tree species, particularly oak species,” said Tom Macy, forest-health forester for the Ohio Division of Forestry.
Healthy trees can recover from the defoliation, Macy said, but multiple years of defoliation can significantly reduce the trees’ health or kill them.
The Agriculture Department identified central Ohio as a potential problem area and decided last year to go ahead with treatments.
As a result, seven airplanes carrying the treatment, Disrupt II, will depart from Don Scott Field and spray from 100 to 200 feet above treetops.
Treatments are expected to be completed in one or two days and will disrupt mating on 45,675 acres.
Disrupt II is made of green plastic flakes impregnated with the gypsy moth pheromone, Adkins said. The flakes don’t kill the moths, but instead confuse the males during their search for female partners, who can lay up to 1,000 eggs at a time.
“The female doesn’t fly, so she emits a pheromone to draw the male to her,” Adkins said. “What we’re going to do is saturate the air with the pheromone so he can’t find her and then she’ll end up laying unfertilized eggs.”
The treatments are part of the multistate Slow the Spread Program that aims to suppress the gypsy-moth population.
Cheryl Trimble, horticulturist at the Darby Creek Nursery in Hilliard, said customers haven’t complained of gypsy moths but that might be a result of the moth’s camouflage and the caterpillar’s tendency to stay high in tree canopies.
About 70 percent of hardwood forests in the United States are unaffected by gypsy moths, and the program hopes to keep it that way, Adkins said.
The flakes are nontoxic to humans, birds, plants, pets or beneficial insects such as honeybees.
“Just sit back and watch the air show,” Adkins said.