By ANNE BESTON
Avondale's most famous creepy-crawly is likely to suffer hunger pains when an aerial insecticide blitz of West Auckland starts today, weather permitting.
The Avondale spider (Delena cancerides) eats moths, including the painted apple moth which is the target of this weekend's aerial bombardment of Foray 48B, or Btk,
over West Auckland.
The spray, although aimed at the caterpillars of painted apple moth, will kill all caterpillars of moths, and butterflies by rupturing their gut after ingestion.
The painted apple moth and the Avondale spider are both native Australians but while the moth is a $48 million threat to New Zealand's forestry and horticultural industries, the spider, a gentle giant, has lived quietly and harmlessly in Avondale for more than 80 years.
"The spray will certainly reduce the moth population and the wet summer isn't helping the poor old Avondales anyway," said Landcare Research arachnologist Grace Hall.
Numbers have declined because the giant spiders, of Arachnophobia movie fame, live under the bark of wattle trees, often the target of cleanups by the Auckland City Council, Mrs Hall says.
Wattles are also being removed from parts of West Auckland because they are one of the favourite foods of the painted apple moth.
Mrs Hall says she would hate anything to happen to the giant spiders (an adult can reach 20cm).
The spiders also eat cockroaches, earwigs and beetles.
"I love them to death. They are the gentle giants of the spider world, they're just wonderful."
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry's $11 million aerial spray was due to start early today, but yesterday, the chances of takeoff were fifty-fifty.
A successful spray requires calm, dry conditions and no rain for at least five hours after spraying.
nzherald.co.nz/environment
