Feds ready for sterile moth release
By Emily Charrier-Botts
INDEX-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
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The program, which is being overseen by the United States Department of Agriculture, involves releasing 1,400 sterilized moths per acre of land every week. The idea of sterile insect technique is that the sterilized moths will still be capable of mating with the wild moths, but unable to procreate. The USDA has said the technique has been used to successfully eradicate a wide variety of invasive pests all over the world. Critics of the plan, including James Carey, an entomology professor at UC Davis, have said it is impossible to eradicate the moth and that, over the course of all its applications, the sterile insect technique has only successfully eradicated one species - the screw-worm fly in the 1960s.
"They see any decrease in population and call it a success," Carey said in a prior interview with the Index-Tribune. The USDA is using the pilot program to determine if the technique could be used successfully over widespread areas of California to combat the apple moth, which USDA spokesman Larry Hawkins claims has already caused more than a $1 million in damage to caneberry and blackberry crops in the state and is capable of significantly more damage. Hawkins added the pilot program would allow USDA scientists to monitor the moth's behavior and mating patterns, giving a better understanding of this pest that has never been studied in the United States.
Hawkins had said the pilot program was scheduled to launch in October, but was delayed as the USDA waited for the necessary state permits. Hawkins said the permits have now been secured and, "We're just working out logistics right now," adding that the USDA hopes to begin releasing moths next week.
The moths have been reared at a specially built facility on the coast at Moss Landing, (Monterey County) where they will be subjected to a dose of radiation large enough to sterilize the pests while leaving their genitalia intact. The moths are not radioactive and, according to a USDA environmental assessment, will have no significant impact on native species. Hawkins said the program would be repeated several times in coming weeks to provide a data set showing the effectiveness of the program before deciding whether it would be feasible to implement it on a larger scale statewide.
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Reader Comments
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gtrgtw13hotmail.com wrote on Oct 30, 2009 1:06 AM:
The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) Environmental Impact Report on the Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM) just released confirmed that LBAM HAS DONE NO CROP DAMAGE IN CALIFORNIA.
Chapter #3,Section 3.2.3.2 "Effects on Agricultural Revenues (Crop Damages)."
* Page 3-20: "No direct crop damages have been experienced to date in areas subject to existing infestation"
* Page #3-21: "…no crop damages have been experienced to date"
The damage Larry Hawkins of USDA claims to cane berry and blackberry crops is totally false. CDFA with the assistance of USDA fabricated the danger of LBAM. LBAM is not an insect of economic significance anywhere in the world.
Jerry Powell, retired UC Berkeley entomologist noticed the moth in his back yard in July 2006. It may have been here already for 50 years of more but certainly now in 2006, 07, 08, 09: NO DAMAGE.
The National Academy of Science (NAS) said initial claims of LBAM as a threat to crops lacked scientific support, and since NAS was hired by USDA, that is the strongest statement NAS can make on the fraud of this program.
There are major LBAM "Infestations" in Santa Cruz County and SF County and NO DAMAGE. There are also major infestations of tens of thousands of other insects that live in California that require NO eradication.
If CDFA can maintain the LBAM program for 25 years, their average eradication length for other insects, they can pass approximately $3 Billion dollars to privileged insider corporate pesticide chemical companies. That was the motivation for the LBAM program.
The sterile moth release is also a sham. But the service contracts and expansion of CDFA's budget is too attractive for CDFA and USDA to back down from this LBAM promotion. LBAM is not even a candidate for successful eradication by sterile insect technique and LBAM is so widespread over the state, that there is no way to eradicate it (and no valid reason to.) Because of the recent rains and cold weather, the moths are already in larva stage for the winter, so it is impossible to even test the effectiveness of moth population change from sterile moth release at this time. But that does not stop USDA, since they want the program to go forward so the money can flow. The USDA will certainly falsify that the program was successful just as they falsified that LBAM had done cane berry and blackberry damage, when it had not.
Judges will ultimately evaluate the Environmental Impact Report (EIR), so the truth of "NO DAMAGE" had to be revealed in the EIR, but the USDA has no such restrictions in their delivery of misleading information to the media.
Here is the press release that reconciles why the CDFA said the pesticide (they call pheromone) sprayed onto towns in 2007 was safe, but so many people got sick:
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_17393.cfm "