Non-Aviation Press Has Made Fertile Ground for Nitwits

About three dozen panicked calls Tuesday morning, in and near Willow Springs (IL), seem to confirm aviation's worst fears.

The Illinois Department of Agriculture, in an effort to control the gypsy moth population in southern Cook County, sent out a spray plane; citizens were scared out of their gourds. Stephanie Gehring, writing in the Daily Southtown, quoted resident Michael Turner, who was duly speculative: "It was very scary at first. I could have hit it with a rock — that is how low it was. Who knew what it was doing? It could have crashed into my house."

The village didn't know what to tell the panicking residents, even though, Gehrig reports, the moth program coordinator told Willow Springs public works about the planned spraying on June 23.

In keeping with current political thinking, the moths aren't poisoned; they're trapped. Last year, the state caught nearly 11,000 gypsy moths in their traps. Last year's acreage figures weren't immediately available, but this year, the state is spraying 26,300 acres. If these numbers are comparable, they're reducing the population by nearly 1/2 moth for every acre sprayed. [It's not that simple; the trapping catches only the males. Males fly around, fertilizing as many as 100,000 eggs on a single badly-infested tree --ed.] In a Cook County program, the Southtown said, nearly 2600 moths were caught last year -- in forest preserves that total 68,000 acres. The treated acreage was not mentioned.

FMI: www.agr.state.il.us