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<p>NANTICOKE &#8212; About 200 people with questions about steps they can take to stop gypsy moth caterpillars from killing their trees packed an auditorium Wednesday night for an informational meeting on the topic.</p><p>Luzerne County is partnering with the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources to implement an aerial spray program for gypsy moth suppression in 2016, and state and county officials spoke on the program in the Educational Conference Center at Luzerne County Community College.</p><p>The county dropped out of the state&#8217;s aerial spray program after 2009, citing a decline in the gypsy moth population as a main reason, and laying off four employees who handled the program along with nine others in January 2010.</p><p>As gypsy moth populations have spiked this year, the county has been barraged with calls from residents seeking relief from the leaf-eating pests. But it missed the deadline for signing up to participate in the state&#8217;s 2015 aerial spraying.</p><p>County Operational Services Division Head Tanis Manseau, who has said he never received any information about spraying or the potential for an outbreak last year, opened the meeting by saying county officials will do their best, with assistance from the state, &#8220;to get these things under control so that we don&#8217;t lose valuable natural resources as a result.&#8221;</p><p><strong>Know the enemy</strong></p><p>Tim Marasco, field operations supervisor with the Division of Forest Health under DCNR&#8217;s Bureau of Forestry, spent much of the meeting familiarizing the audience with the caterpillars, their life cycles and how best to minimize their threat.</p><p>He showed a slide showing Eastern tent and forest tent caterpillars &#8212; which cause minimal if any defoliation &#8212; alongside a gypsy moth caterpillar, noting that the latter has red and blue dots along its back. He said the web-like &#8220;tents&#8221; of the former species seen in trees are recognizably different from the tan-colored, oval-shaped egg masses of the gypsy moth species.</p><p>The caterpillars emerge from egg masses in late April and early May, and DCNR begins aerial spraying with insecticide in early-to-mid May and ends in late May to early June &#8212; a narrow, approximately two-week window, Marasco said.</p><p>The insecticide that DCNR uses contains Bacillus thuringiensis Berliner (Bt) &#8212; a bacterium that causes disease in certain insect larvae but won&#8217;t kill off beneficial insects such as bees. It remains active on treated trees for seven to 14 days depending on the weather and will kill caterpillars that ingest it.</p><p><strong>Requirements</strong></p><p>Marasco said the program doesn&#8217;t do much for caterpillars infesting urban residential neighborhoods because it&#8217;s not designed to. &#8220;We are not a caterpillar-killing program; we are a tree-preserving program,&#8221; he said, explaining that the program is aimed at &#8220;forested residential areas.&#8221;</p><p>Living in such an area is the first requirement for a landowner to qualify for the state&#8217;s spraying program next year. The house must be no more than 200 feet from the forested area.</p><p>Secondly, there must be a minimum of 250 new egg masses per acre. Basically, map out an 18&#189;-foot circle and count the egg masses in the tree or trees within the circle. If there are six or more masses, the property passes that particular test for inclusion in the program, he said.</p><p>The property also must have trees present that the caterpillars favor, including oak, apple, speckled alder, basswood, gray and river birch, poplar or willow. And there is a minimum of 23 contiguous acres required for spraying. Property owners with less acreage can join with adjacent landowners and apply together.</p><p>He also noted that it&#8217;s a shared-cost program, with the county, state and federal governments kicking in equal shares and property owners reimbursing the county its third.</p><p>Keri Skvarla, Luzerne County gypsy moth coordinator, said individual and community group applications are available at local municipal buildings, outside the council meeting room at the county courthouse and on the county website. Application deadline is Aug. 15.</p><p><strong>Alternatives</strong></p><p>Vinnie Cotrone, urban forester with the Penn State Cooperative Extension, addressed techniques other than aerial spraying to address the gypsy moth problem for county residents who don&#8217;t qualify for aerial spraying.</p><p>Some of the alternatives include:</p><p>&#8226; Spraying trees from the ground or hiring a licensed professional with an applicator powerful enough to reach taller trees.</p><p>&#8226; Doing a soil drench or soil injection at the base of the trees to be protected.</p><p>&#8226; Use burlap banding, doubled over. Scrape off caterpillars twice a day that hide under a fold of burlap.</p><p>&#8226; Use tanglefoot bands &#8212; a sticky substance applied to a band of plastic wrap around the trunk of a tree to capture caterpillars that travel over it. Cotrone said this method is least effective.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Tim Marasco, of the state Bureau of Forestry, gives a presentation on gypsy moth caterpillar suppression during a public information meeting Wednesday at Luzerne County Community College in Nanticoke. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_gypsymoths01.jpg</photo0><caption0>Tim Marasco, of the state Bureau of Forestry, gives a presentation on gypsy moth caterpillar suppression during a public information meeting Wednesday at Luzerne County Community College in Nanticoke. </caption0><photoCredit0>Pete G. Wilcox | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_gypsymoths02.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">People attending Wednesday&#8217;s public information meeting concerning the aerial spraying for gypsy moths in Luzerne County in 2016 listen to experts give presentations at Luzerne County Community College in Nanticoke. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_gypsymoths02.jpg</photo1><caption1>People attending Wednesday&#8217;s public information meeting concerning the aerial spraying for gypsy moths in Luzerne County in 2016 listen to experts give presentations at Luzerne County Community College in Nanticoke. </caption1><photoCredit1>Pete G. Wilcox | Times Leader </photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Steve Mocarsky</p><p>smocarsky@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>RESOURCES</strong></p><p>To access a 2016 aerial spraying application online, go to <a href="http://www.luzernecounty.org" target="_blank">www.luzernecounty.org</a> and type &#8220;gypsy&#8221; into the search box at the top left of the page.</p><p>For information on alternative methods of dealing with gypsy moth caterpillars, call the Luzerne County Penn State Extension at 570-825-1701.</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Steve Mocarsky at 570-991-6386 or on Twitter @TLSteveMocarsky.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Hundreds turn out for information on gypsy-moth spraying