Brian Rudman: Let's raise our glasses to the Btk blitzkrieg

So, after three years of dilly-dallying with the alien painted apple moth, it's time for total war. The time for backpack sprays and sticky card traps is over. The Government has finally decided to drown the little buggers in a deluge of bacterial spray, pumped out of the wings of two Fokker Friendship aircraft.

For many critics of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry's gently-gently approach over the past three years, the new blitzkrieg policy is not before time.

They have pointed to the success of the rapid aerial response in 1996 following the invasion of the eastern suburbs by the white spotted tussock moth, and asked why the same policy wasn't adopted again.

It's a good question for a rainy day, but hardly one that's going to solve the immediate problem, which is to stop this little beastie munching its way out of West Auckland and into the forests - both native and commercial - of the land.

So far, this Aussie bludger has proved remarkably resilient, surviving after three years of intensive spraying and trapping. Despite the female moth's inability to fly, colonies have rapidly spread from the original sites of infestation like Waikumete Cemetery.

Apparently the caterpillars use silken threads to catch air currents. Some isolated moths have even been found across the harbour in Birkenhead.

The good news, if there is any, is that according to the experts, the enemy has taken a hammering. The hope is that the proposed $90 million blitzkrieg will finish them off.

When you see the damage other invaders such as possums and stoats have done, there seems little choice but to have one last shot at halting this one, which the experts variously guess could cost horticulture and the environment somewhere between $48 million and $356 million over the next 20 years. As you can see, like so much about this exercise, certainties are hard to come by.

Apart from the cost, which the Government says it can find, the biggest hurdle in getting the show off the ground seems to be in winning the hearts and minds of the Westies who will have to share the regular sprayings with the caterpillars. You can sympathise with them.

Having put up with the three years of promises that victory is nigh, it's hardly great news to learn there's another three years of off-and-on spraying to look forward to. No wonder everyone from Waitakere Mayor Bob Harvey down are a tad grumpy.

What surprises me is that the Government public relations hacks haven't taken a lesson or two from the war propagandists of old and convinced the Westies they're engaged in a patriotic battle over forces of foreign evil.

A down-country headline writer got the idea yesterday when he wrote, "$112m to evict nasty, hairy little Ocker." That's the spirit. Demonise the little critter, just as the British did to the Germans in World War I when they made up stories of their butchering Belgian babies.

Biosecurity Minister Jim Sutton is also on to it when, in declaring total war on the caterpillar he said: "I think of it as a beast." I guess if it was blown up to 100 times its true size, so could I.

Mr Sutton also had a tricky fend when the emotional issue of human susceptibility to the spray came up. He pointed straight back at "the beast", accusing it of being the one that caused health problems, too.

"They've got these whiskers on their backs and they can be intensely irritating to people." Yuck. So bad, indeed, they could pass for politicians.

As well as demonising the enemy, it's time for the generals to lead from the front. - a touch of the Queen Mum donning the pearls and joining the bombed ones in London's East End.

As for who to play Queen Mum, well, take your pick, but I do see that Judith Tizard, the Minister for Auckland Issues, has been an enthusiastic claque, declaring herself "thrilled" by one of Mr Sutton's earlier skirmishes with the beast.

What better morale-booster could there be than she and Mr Sutton promenading through Waikumete Cemetery with Paul Holmes and John Campbell in hot pursuit while the Fokkers were busy at their work overhead.

Better still, they could end it with a toast to the success of the campaign using a drop or two of the stuff. After all, from my reading, this organic substance is about as harmful to humans as Waikato water.

Indeed, in Oregon where this Btk spray is widely used, 18 human volunteers suffered no ill effects from swallowing one gram of Btk each day for five days. Another five volunteers suffered no illness from inhaling 100mg of Btk each day for the same period.

With little acts of leadership like that I'm sure they'd have the Westies drinking out of the same cup before the first Fokker even took off.