Milestone reached in painted apple moth campaign

2.30pm

Biosecurity officials are celebrating the first moth-free week in the campaign against the painted apple moth in Auckland, but are not yet declaring victory.

For the first summer week since large-scale trapping of the pest started in June 2001, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry caught no moths in its traps between April 5 and 11.

"We are thrilled," said painted apple moth programme general manager Robert Isbister.

"The combination of aerial spraying, host tree removal and the release of sterile moths, is really taking its toll on the moth population.

"The trapping data is a great sign that we are well on our way to wiping out the pest. We will be working hard over the coming months to keep the population down and make sure every last moth is eradicated."

Spokeswoman Melissa Wilson said that particularly during summer periods, a sustained zero result was needed.

The Government decided on a $90 million aerial spray campaign to try to wipe out the moth invader, with the part of Auckland being covered growing to around 10,000ha late last year.

That area has since been reduced to 8100ha.

Ms Wilson said remaining sprays timetabled so far were a general one on April 22, and a targeted helicopter operation on April 29.

Specialists working on the operation were looking hard at the data now to determine what the ongoing needs of the programme would be, she said.

Last week's zero result follows three encouraging months during the moth's most active breeding season.

In January 2002, 1300 male moths were trapped, while for the same period this year the number was 30.

Similarly, just 24 moths were trapped in February 2003, compared with 2300 during the same month the previous year. In March, only nine moths were trapped, compared to 996 caught last March.

At the same time the number and geographical spread of monitoring traps has increased.

In January last year there were approximately 700 traps in place. Now more than 1600 are spread from as far north as Dairy Flat, south as Horotiu and west as Huia, improving the accuracy of estimates of the size of the residual painted apple moth population.

- NZPA