You might have heard that we here in the SF Bay Area have been graced by the first sightings of the Light Brown Apple Moth in the continental US. Since it has so many host plants and we have so much ag here, it's a really scary thing. What can you gardeners who live in Australia tell us about this pest? Where do you buy pheromone lures to combat it? What other methods of prevention/combat would you recommend?
I will be interested in any replies too ,as the NZ agriculture industry is worried about it arriving here .They thought they found one and sprayed a huge city area by low-flying plane ,with many people becoming ill as a result .They refused to tell us what chemical was in the spray .
I hope your area will be ok Spidra,
Emelle
Weird. The coverage here says the moth has already landed in NZ, Hawaii, Great Britain and Ireland.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/04/05/BUG7OP2P4R1.DTL&hw=apple+moth&sn=001&sc=1000
There was a dead male moth found in Hamilton ,which resulted in the large scale spray I mentioned -(though many people doubted it had found its own way here ! )
And supposedly a few in the largest city -Auckland .That is all ... I do wonder what their (experts ) agenda really is ,because it doesn't make sense ..Weird ,as you say ! .Please keep us informed ,Spidra .
Emelle..
spidra,
I don't know anything about control of the Light Brown Apple Moth, but I do notice that we have no record of it so far in BugFiles.
Could I ask you to create a BugFiles entry for the Light Brown Apple Moth, as:
Common Name: Light Brown Apple Moth
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Tortricidae
Genus: Epiphyas
Species; postvittana
and then add your image to it. Any information on it wopuld also be welcome,
Ken
It is also known here as the 'painted apple moth'
Emelle
I don't own copyright on the image. I got it from a Fresno Bee article, I believe. But I can start an entry.
Okay. The listing is here: http://davesgarden.com/bf/go/4646/
Photos properly credited.
Would this moth be the same as the Codling moth? This is a pest that we have learned to live with as it affects apples, pears & even some quinces. Luckily we usually have so many fruit that the effected ones fall of the trees long before the good ones.
There are pheremone traps available here & even sticky tapes to wrap round the trees, but I believe that having free range poultry in the orchard (as we do) keeps the numbers down.
No, it is quite different -much bigger .The codling moth in the big orchards here can be controlled by spraying .I like the idea of the chookies doing their thing amongst the fruit . A natural way of living -better than sprays ! Emelle .
