Half a dozen west Auckland families will be displaced from their homes by painted apple moth spraying this Christmas -- if the aerial spraying due to start on December 18 is completed that day or the next.
If bad weather or technical problems stretches the aerial spraying out to December23, the number of families who won't be home for Christmas will rise to 24, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) painted apple moth project director Ian Gear said.
Aerial spraying of Auckland's 8521ha of potentially infested vegetation was normally required at 21 day intervals in the eradication programme, but the December 18 spraying had been bought forward to avoid Christmas.
Mr Gear said no spraying would be done on December 24-26 or 31 and January 1-2.
If spraying had continued to 6pm on Christmas Eve, MAF would have had to accommodate people from 100 families away from home on Christmas Day.
Some householders have arrangements with MAF to spend between 1 and 11 days out of their homes when spraying is taking place, and a spokeswoman for Gasp, a group opposing the spraying on health grounds, said yesterday the aerial spraying on December 18 would displace "spray evacuees" from Christmas at home with their families.
Mr Gear said MAF had gone to some lengths to reduce the disruption to a minimum.
MAF was also working closely with a commercial Christmas tree business inside the spray zone, and with commercial nurseries and plant shops. They were being given permits to move vegetation out of the spray zone, on the condition that it has been sprayed with the BTK insecticide.
Similar approvals were available to small growers wanting to take produce out of the area.
Field inspectors were watching for people trying to take Christmas trees through the spray zone without permits.
