A little moth ignites a big flap
It sounds more like a designer paint color than the newest
scourge to strike California agriculture.
Beware the dreaded light brown apple moth.
The pest is getting more attention than Britney Spears on a
bender these days.
A little moth ignites a big flap
It sounds more like a designer paint color than the newest scourge to strike California agriculture.
Beware the dreaded light brown apple moth.
The pest is getting more attention than Britney Spears on a bender these days.
Both U.S. and state agricultural departments are pushing for a $74.5 million program to spray Central California from Monterey to Solano counties to wipe out the nondescript bug. The moth is thought to have traveled from Down Under. It’s a minor pest in New Zealand, where it is thought to have arrived from Australia.
Monterey and Santa Cruz counties already have been sprayed, and more applications are scheduled for June.
The story unfolding around the moth is, in a curious way, California environmental politics wrapped up in a neat little cocoon.
Agriculture officials, with the backing of some of the staff at U.C. Davis, warn that the moth could devastate California crops. The solution, they say, is eradication. The method, they agree is aerial spraying.
Cue the screams.
Those of us old enough to remember California’s last statewide insect scare remember the Mediterranean fruit fly debacle. Some believe it was a significant contributor to Gov. Jerry Brown’s temporary departure from state politics. Then, planes sprayed sugar-laced bait to eliminate what was agreed to be a serious threat to agriculture. More than a few people were unhappy about being misted with poison.
This time, the plan calls for spraying pheromones across targeted counties.
While the spray is a pesticide, it’s more akin to a spritz of cheap cologne.
Since moths are mobile, and they can’t sing or drive Porches to attract the attention of potential mates, they depend on scent. When a female is in the mood for love, she secretes a hormone that lures males – a pheromone.
The idea behind spraying the stuff is that pretty soon everything smells like a randy female and the idea of mating is too confusing and too much bother.
Think about stepping into a crowded elevator in which three or more females are wearing different brands of perfume. If you were in the mood for love, chances are the experience will put you in the mood for “get off at the next floor.”
A few people reported symptoms connected with the first pheromone spraying in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties, things like shortness of breath and sore throats – kind of like what happens to me when I step into that elevator stuffed with over-scented women. But just the word “pesticide” is enough to put a fair number of Californians in a foul humor. Cities are passing resolutions against it, legislators are busy legislating bills to control application over cities, that kind of thing.
So if the stuff’s pretty harmless, let’s fire up the airplanes and spray. After all, what’s $74.5 million? California’s got plenty of cash laying around, right?
Not so fast, aver another group of U.C. scientists. These are from a different corner of the system. Daniel Harder, executive director of the arboretum at U.C. Santa Cruz, studied the moth in New Zealand. He claims it is a pest of minor consequence. Moreover, the little buggers have probably established a pretty good beachhead in the state already. U.C. entomologists believe the moths may have been in the state for decades. They argue for a campaign to contain and control the moth, rather than trying to eradicate it with pheromone carpet-bombing that’s likely to be ineffective.
Enter a new layer of intrigue.
It emerged in news accounts last Saturday that the company that makes one of the pheromones being considered for spraying is owned by a generous political contributor.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Stewart Resnick of Los Angeles owns Central Valley orchards, and also Suterra LLC, a Bend, Ore., manufacturer of CheckMate.
When he’s not growing fruit and nuts or making pesticide, records show Resnick makes political donations. He’s given nearly $150,000 to Gov. Scwarzenegger’s campaign, and made hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions to state Democrats.
The governor is on record as supporting the aerial spraying program.
Where does all this leave us? Like most things political, it appears to leave us mired in confusion and acrimony.
If only light brown apple moths could laugh.
