by Peter Bodley
Managing editor
A gypsy moth infestation has been found in a portion of the city of Coon Rapids.
That means the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) is planning eradication treatments later this year.
The Coon Rapids area affected totals some 539 acres.
It is generally north of Main Street, east of Coon Creek Boulevard and west of Hanson Boulevard and south of 132nd Lane N.W., although there is also a small area affected in Andover from 132nd north to 134th Lane N.W. between Osage and Martin streets.
The agriculture department has scheduled an open house at Bunker Hills Activity Center, 550 Bunker Lake Blvd., Andover, for tomorrow (Tuesday, Feb. 8), 6 to 8 p.m., to inform people about the problem and what will be done to deal with it.
Coon Rapids is one of three gypsy moth infested areas in the Twin Cities area that will be treated this year; the others are in Minnetonka in Hennepin County and the city of Grant in Washington County.
A statewide MDA monitoring program to watch for start-up infestation detected these three areas in 2010 for treatment this year to prevent the spread of the gypsy moth.
Gypsy moths have caused millions of dollars in damage to forests as they have spread from New England to Wisconsin in recent decades.
“Gypsy moth caterpillars can defoliate large sections of forest, with oak, aspen, birch and poplar among their preferred hosts,” said Alison Rossow, GIS research analyst in the MDA plant protection division.
In fact, the gypsy moth attacks up to 300 species of trees and shrubs, including pines and spruce, she said.
But the gypsy moth does not like ash and box elder trees, Russow said.
According to Michael Schommer, MDA director of communications, there are about 3,100 parcels/residents in the Coon Rapids treatment area.
The treatment involves a low flying aircraft/helicopter spraying the affected area with a substance that is not harmful to humans; non-forested areas are excluded.
“Our best estimate, with a normal/average spring is to have the first treatment in mid-May (perhaps in the week or two before Memorial Day) with a follow up seven to 10 days later,” Schommer said.
The second treatment is to make sure that late-developing caterpillars are dealt with and to ensure the success of the product, according to Russow.
Strong winds and the chance of rain in the weather forecast could delay spraying, but the higher the humidity the better, Schommer said.
Treatment will generally start at sunrise (5:30 a.m. at that time of year) and in good conditions, an airplane can treat 640 acres in under an hour, while a helicopter would take two hours, he said.
Conditions become less favorable for treatment after 10:30 a.m., Schommer said.
According to Schommer, residents in the affected area will receive a postcard notice in the mail with a two-week window of when caterpillar growth and weather conditions look favorable for spraying.
But the best way for residents to get up-to-the-hour notification is to call the MDA’s Arrest the Pest hotline at 651-201-6684 or monitor the MDA Agriculture Twitter feed, Schommer said.
During the treatment process, MDA will have a minimum of four to five people, possibly more depending on volunteers, on the ground in the affected area, he said.
“They will have bright orange construction vests on with official badges from their agency (if they have them) as well as magnetic signs on their vehicles from either the MDA or their agency,” Schommer said.
“Generally, we drive around the neighborhoods, seeking out people who are outdoors or look concerned.”
Lots of advance notice of the treatments and what they involve are key to minimizing the concern of residents in the affected area.
“We want to make sure there are no surprises for residents,” Schommer said.
From Schommer’s experience, people are either indifferent to the project, are thankful that the MDA is taking care of a potential infestation, or have general concerns about the bug or spray (which are usually relieved by the handout material or answers to a few questions), he said.
“Our goal is to have all potentially impacted people be notified of our plans weeks or months in advance so that they can make plans to minimize their exposure,” Schommer said
The timing of the spraying is designed to impact people as little as possible, Russow said.
Past eradication treatments have been successful, according to Schommer.
In the Twin Cities, these have included Minneapolis and Golden Valley in 2002, Edina in 2004, Brooklyn Park in 2006 and Minnetonka and Richfield in 2009.
“This is determined by dense trapping follow up the year of treatment showing no male moths in the area,” Schommer said.
“We also follow up with dense trapping for two to four years after the treatment, and then return to our regular survey system of detection.
“We have been doing successful eradication treatments since the early 1980s.”
According to Schommer, it’s not unusual to find scattered gypsy moth infestations because they tend to “hitch” rides on human-moved items like firewood, tents, cars etc,.
For example, the MDA knows that the Minnetonka outbreak was the result of contaminated stock in a nursery shipment from Canada three years ago, Schommer said.
“For the Coon Rapids infestation, we simply honed in on positive traps over the course of a few years and searched the area to find egg masses,” he said.
“Our approach is to just deal with the infestations as we find them and try to educate the public on how to prevent future infestations.”
More information and links about the gypsy month problem and its eradication are available on the MDA website at www.mda.state.mn.us.
Peter Bodley is at peter.bodley@ecm-inc.com.
