Moth spraying extended

By FRANCESCA MOLD political reporter

The campaign to eradicate the painted apple moth will be extended to include an extra aerial spray over West Auckland next month so that remaining caterpillars are killed off before winter.

The aerial eradication programme was expected to end this month but Biosecurity Minister Jim Sutton said warmer than normal weather meant an 11th spray was necessary. It will be carried out on May 13.

Mr Sutton said there had been no moths caught in the affected zone for the past two weeks.

"However, it is not over yet. We must take a cautious approach," he said.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has been fighting the Australian pest from the air for more than a year, at times spraying a target zone of more than 10,000ha.

Mr Sutton said a winter eradication programme would target a smaller area and be less frequent. But it was possible aerial sprays would have to be done again next summer. About 40,000 households with 160,000 people live within the zone and many residents claim the Foray 48B spray is affecting their health.

The chairman of the painted apple moth community advisory group, Kubi Witten-Hannah, said it was disturbing MAF appeared to have no intention of ending its campaign.

He said medical evidence showed the spray was not safe for humans and yet MAF was continuing to cover areas where no moths had been found, including West Auckland schools.

Mr Witten-Hannah said MAF appeared to be putting the convenience of aerial spraying above the health of West Aucklanders.

He believed MAF would continue to spray hotspots where caterpillars were found in the coming months.

Residents did not have much hope that the $90 million spraying operation would be effective. "What it is doing is keeping the caterpillar numbers down but it is not eradicating them. As soon as they stop, the numbers will come back up."