By ANNE BESTON, environment reporter
Biosecurity authorities want to make a big new attack against a moth pest which could involve aerial spraying over thousands of Auckland homes from the North Shore to Manukau Harbour.
If the Cabinet approves the multimillion-dollar project against the painted apple moth, spraying would last up
to four years.
It would be the biggest urban aerial campaign undertaken in New Zealand.
Likely new areas in the target zone include the North Shore, Swanson and south towards Manukau Harbour.
The moth is a threat to forestry and horticulture.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry will put a proposal to the Cabinet early next month.
It wants to spray the biological insecticide Foray 48B, or Btk, over a core 8000ha area to wipe out the pest.
The plan also includes a 5000ha "contingency" area MAF could target by helicopter if new moth infestations were found.
The 8000ha spray zone is twice the size of the $12 million DC6 aerial campaign against the white- spotted tussock moth in east Auckland in 1996, and 13 times the size of the current apple moth zone.
The ministry has been spraying the moth by helicopter since January.
It has been criticised for its handling of the moth invasion and for the disruption caused to some West Auckland residents, who say their health has been affected by the spray.
Approval of the new plan would be a turnaround from two months ago, when officials were preparing to abandon attempts to eradicate the moth.
Scientists outside the ministry believed MAF was ready to give up the fight because the moth had spread over such a wide area.
But now, new staff within MAF appear to be backing an all-out eradication attempt, likely to cost many more millions of dollars.
Early last month the Government quietly gave the spray programme another $12 million, effectively doubling its budget.
At the same time, the target zone was expanded to include 1000 more West Auckland residential properties near Avondale Racecourse and Henderson Creek.
Areas that could now be included in the aerial operation are Swanson and further south towards the Manukau Harbour, and parts of the North Shore.
MAF's painted apple moth project director, Ian Gear, said it was too early to go into details of which suburbs would be in the spray zone but the ministry was ground-surveying for the moth in Birkenhead.
"If the nod is given to us we will be disclosing what we'll be doing," he said.
The new proposal would go to the Cabinet on September 9 but papers to be put before ministers would include a range of options, Mr Gear said.
The chairman of the MAF-appointed community advisory group on painted apple moth, Kubi Witten-Hannah, said he was not convinced a blanket spray operation would work because the ministry was "still chasing the moth around".
He said the current campaign had been a failure "because MAF don't know where the moth is and they have not looked after people's health".
If the new programme went ahead, some people could be sprayed with Btk up to 48 times, he said.
The ministry's key technical group of experts was consulted two weeks ago on the proposal, and MAF discussed the need for a "capability" to operate somewhere between 8000 and 12,000ha, said Mr Gear.
"At the moment we are looking to operate at the lower end of that range, in the vicinity of 8000ha."
The Herald understands scientists involved with the operation have told MAF a 100 per cent kill rate of caterpillars has not been achieved anywhere in the spray zone, and the rate is down to 70 per cent in some cases. The 600ha zone has been blitzed by air eight times.
Mr Gear said infestations in Waikumete Cemetery, in the heart of the spray zone, were causing problems which were being investigated.
He would not discuss how much the blanket spray operation might cost, saying that was "anyone's guess".
Painted apple moth, a native of Australia, is estimated to be a $48 million threat to forestry and horticulture over the next 20 years.
It was discovered in Glendene in 1999, and MAF began its aerial campaign early this year.
MAF has always maintained the moth is not as big a threat as the white spotted tussock moth because the female painted apple moth does not fly.
nzherald.co.nz/environment
By ANNE BESTON, environment reporter
Biosecurity authorities want to make a big new attack against a moth pest which could involve aerial spraying over thousands of Auckland homes from the North Shore to Manukau Harbour.
If the Cabinet approves the multimillion-dollar project against the painted apple moth, spraying would last up
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