Gypsy Moth Damage
- Thread starter james ungehajer
- Start date
Interesting, I thought they had sprayed this year with Dimilin. Guess not. I wondered why we were seeing so many adult moths. I am guessing that costs a lot more than the Bt. It would be nice if the Bt would work, it's a bit more "green", but if it doesn't work, it's a colossal waste of money.
Also, Bt is not considered effective above a certain population density of larvae. I was speaking to the County Forester the other day and he told me that caterpillar surveys he conducted in several county owned tracts resulted in populations far above that density.
Far more toxic substances? Bt is definitely not "far more toxic". I'd say the EPA had a good reason, the insect growth regulator in Dimilin will kill far more than the target pests. For example, there was a big lobster dieoff in New England a couple of years ago due to spraying.
I said we had to use a far mor toxic substance than Dimilin not BT. Bt is useless. A blanket ban on Dimilin is not the way to go. Yes it kills aquatic inveterbrates but we are upland, no water. In the right environment it can be quite useful. We sprayed Demand CS, a much more broad toxicin than Dimilin.
What's Demand CS? Is that lambdacyhalothrin? Yeeks. That would have some bad environmental effects if so. I'd hate to see them spray the pines with that. The fish tox is terrible.
Yet Dimilin is not only safe for fish but is sold in NJ as a fish parasite cure. I only meant that a blanket ban on Dimilin for the whole state is wrong. We have fish ponds and I sprayed Dimilin around them. My whole 4 acres would be fine to spray with Dimilin. Funny how the EPA lets you spray worse stuff. Must be a political issue.