http://www.capradio.org/articles/articledetail.aspx?articleid=7609

New Effort to Combat Light Brown Apple Moth Set for Davis

By: Ben Adler
Tue Jan 5, 2010

Aired 1/5/2010 on All Things Considered
Aired 1/5/2010 on Morning Edition


Photo courtesy Calif.
Dept. of Food & Agriculture

State agriculture officials will start a new effort later this month in Davis to eradicate a pesky insect that poses a threat to nearby agriculture. But one expert doesn’t think the effort will work.

The light brown apple moth can destroy young seedlings and feed on host plants – including citrus, grapes and berries. And the state has found enough of them in 16 counties across California to quarantine those areas – including the city of Davis. Yolo County Agriculture Commissioner John Young says officials will distribute twist-ties with a pheromone designed to confuse male moths.

Young: “And then the male moth cannot find the female, therefore disrupting the mating process and then the female can’t lay any viable eggs.”

But UC Davis entomology professor James Carey says the pheromone won’t be effective – and called it “money down a rathole.”

Carey: “You know, there’s some mountains you can’t move and some cancers you can’t cure, and there’s also some insects you can’t eradicate. It’s simply impossible.”

Environmentalists have questioned the safety of the state’s earlier eradication efforts that involved aerial spraying of pheromones. But Carey says the twist ties are much lower-risk.

Officials are holding an open house for Davis residents late next week. They’ll start placing the twist ties soon after that.

They're here in England too.
See my web-page about this pest in my greenhouse:
http://www.homecitrusgrowers.co.uk/pests/lightbrownapplemoth.html

There's an excellent newly published article in the latest issue of California Agriculture about the best proven method to combat LBAM but the brute chemical people would want to fleece the taxpayers and so here we are.

Anyway New Zealand has the exact same problems with LBAM several decades ago but now the damage from the pest has gone way down to neglible levels even for untreated trees. The use of paraistoids and maintaining it's population turns out to be ticket. And the cost of introduction is minimal. It requires time to build up but once it gets established we should no longer have the problem. Indiscriminate use of pesticides be it organic or synthetic should be avoided.

I just read the article and perhaps somebody can post a link to online version. I'll be gone for several days.

Joe the article appears to be on page six of the current issue but I can't find a link to it anywhere.

.....Alan.