Scientists fight pests on all sides

Helicopter spraying to wipe out the painted apple moth begins in West Auckland tomorrow. ANNE BESTON investigates why some experts believe it will fail.

It's now almost three years since an unusual-looking, hairy caterpillar was found walking along a windowsill at an industrial site in Glendene in the heart of West Auckland.

Since then, the painted apple moth has found it rather likes its new home. It has new varieties of native plants to eat, such as ribbonwood and kowhai, as well as the more traditional diet of acacia and wattle trees. It's also fond of apple, pear, cherry, apricot, pine, eucalyptus and willow.

And it eats a lot. Painted apple moth is a member of the tussock moth family, described by one New Zealand scientist as the "possums" of the moth world. It is closely related to white-spotted tussock moth, target of Operation Ever Green in East Auckland in 1996.

A mature tree infested with painted apple moth can be stripped bare by the caterpillars in as little as three months.

You might think that with a moth invasion of this kind, scientists would swing into action, using known information on feeding habits and breeding behaviour to wipe out the pest.

Scientists reply it's not as simple as that. Painted apple moth is in a new home and is likely to behave differently to the way it does in its native Australia.

On all the questions about the moth - Will it eat the Waitakere Ranges? Is it more or less of a threat than the white-spotted tussock moth? Will helicopter spraying work? - there are only scientific best guesses, no certain answers.

Despite this lack of certainty, some experts believe the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has got the painted apple moth operation badly wrong.

One of the biggest critics is the man who identified that first caterpillar, entomologist Dr Peter Maddison.

Once a mainstream scientist working for Landcare Research, these days he's a member of the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society, devoting his time to a West Auckland environmental trust and doing consultancy work.

Dr Maddison, with thick, unfashionable glasses and untrimmed grey beard, has the rumpled look of a man who cares little for life's material rewards.

When not seeking out the enemy - invasive weeds and pests - in the field, he has his sights on MAF and its handling of the painted apple moth incursion.

He's had plenty of ammunition. In January 2000 Dr Ruth Frampton, leader of the painted apple moth programme and MAF's director of forest biosecurity, said she was "cautiously optimistic" the pest had been eradicated.

By last December up to 500 live moths a week were being trapped.

Dr Frampton is a respected entomologist, who played a small role in Operation Ever Green. This time she is the woman at the centre of a debate that has at times been acrimonious and personal. In a field dominated by men - of the 14 scientists and experts appointed by MAF to its advisory group on painted apple moth, Dr Frampton is one of only two women - her position in MAF is powerful.

She is tiny, just over 1.5m, with a ponytail reaching to below her waist and an earnest, if harried, manner. She speaks slowly and deliberately, peering from behind large glasses.

Her critics argue she is out of her depth in a management role, that she lacks people skills and the ability to delegate and consult, that she's not a team player.

Her defenders argue that MAF has been heavily restructured and Dr Frampton has been cast adrift without the staff, money and resources to tackle the problem the way it should have been.

She maintains her approach to this infestation has been cautious and responsible, a low-key strategy designed to save the people of West Auckland from having to endure an aerial bombardment similar to that carried out in East Auckland.

While Dr Maddison applauds her reluctance to subject West Aucklanders to aerial spraying, he questions the ministry's approach over the past two years, calling the moth incursion "a disaster".

"Is this an eradication programme or isn't it? It seems to me we've got things wrong here," he says.

Dr John Clearwater and Dr Gordon Hosking, two senior scientists closely involved in Operation Ever Green, have echoed his concerns.

Dr Hosking goes so far as to say it is probably too late to eradicate the moth.

Dr Clearwater, a former HortResearch scientist with his own consultancy business, is angry that he wasn't asked to join MAF's technical advisory group and didn't get the job of producing a synthetic copy of the moth's pheromone.

The pheromone, or female sex attractant, lures the male moth and is an important tool in the war against moth invaders. It can be used to bait the traps that track the spread of the moth instead of having to use live females that are bred, transferred to the traps and then die a few days later.

Dr Clearwater helped produce the white-spotted tussock moth pheromone and was angry the job went instead to Dr Max Suckling at HortResearch.

By last October Dr Suckling was saying the pheromone was close to being produced. Since then the only word has been that he and his team are still trying.

The ministry's communications adviser on painted apple moth, Mary-Ann Crawford, says HortResearch got the job because a big lab with a team of scientists was considered a better bet than "an individual".

The ministry-appointed residents' group has also been a major thorn in Dr Frampton's side.

The group, appointed by MAF in October to advise on residents' concerns, was by December openly attacking Dr Frampton for her planning of the aerial campaign, even demanding her resignation in a letter to Biosecurity Minister Jim Sutton.

The group's biggest complaint has been that MAF, and in particular Dr Frampton, has kept them out of the loop, failing to pass on information and not listening to their concerns - the reason the group was set up.

Some in the ministry tend to dismiss them as a bunch of rabid greenies pushing their own political agendas.

But the same complaint has come from scientists much closer to the running of the operation.

An unnamed member of the technical advisory group expressed sympathy with the residents' group's concerns, saying they were not the only ones who felt vital information had not been forthcoming.

The central question surrounding the painted apple moth incursion is why this programme has been so different from the almost gung-ho Operation Ever Green, when then-Minister of Forestry John Falloon was talking of an aerial campaign weeks after the white-spotted tussock moth was identified.

There are scientific reasons. Dr Frampton says it's because the flightless female means the spread of painted apple moth is naturally limited, that the Btk insecticide is more effective - some say twice as effective - against painted apple moth caterpillars as it was against the white-spotted tussock moth and that targeted helicopter spraying has every chance of success.

But politics has also played an important part.

Some experts believe the economic risks of the white-spotted tussock moth were overstated and the scale of Operation Ever Green may not have been necessary.

A Labour-led Government was always going to be reluctant to approve aerial spraying (although no government happily dumps tonnes of insecticide on voters).

And to now carry out an aerial blitz of a much larger area - in East Auckland the target zone of the DC6 was 4000ha, the helicopter spray zone in West Auckland is less than 600ha - would be tantamount to admitting the ministry had got it badly wrong.

That would not only have implications for Dr Frampton and her colleagues within MAF. The fallout would almost certainly reach the door of the Biosecurity Minister.

While Mr Falloon took a high-profile role in Operation Ever Green, Mr Sutton's approach has been far more hands-off.

In early December, when the helicopter operation appeared to be blocked by rules under Waitakere City's district plan, Mr Sutton made a point of not blaming the council for the hiccup.

When he finally moved to circumvent the plan under the Biosecurity Act, he said he'd been "forced to intervene", although he did say he was unhappy spraying had not already started.

Mr Sutton, who is expected to be in Auckland tomorrow to watch the first spraying operation, has also defended Dr Frampton and her team, saying he would not make a scapegoat of anyone.

Dr Maddison says no matter what happens, Forest and Bird will demand a ministerial inquiry into the handling of painted apple moth.

So at dawn tomorrow, the biggest battle yet against the moth will begin. If Auckland's weather co-operates, hundreds of litres of Btk will be loaded aboard the twin-engined BK-117 and West Aucklanders will probably puzzle over how this has all come to pass.

Everyone will be fervently hoping it will work. Many say there is almost no chance it will.

nzherald.co.nz/environment