Thu, Jul 03, 2003
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.
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