PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
The state’s annual gypsy moth hunt is under way, with up to 40 trappers setting 19,000 traps statewide — including 750 in Clallam County and 700 in Jefferson County.
“We’ve done it successfully for 28 years. I’m hoping we catch zero,” said John Lundberg, the state Department of Agriculture’s gypsy moth public information officer.
“The $750,000 is money well spent.”
That’s the cost of fighting the voracious, leaf-chomping pests by using the traps to show where they might collect.
The gypsy moth has a wingspan of about 1½ inches. The female moth is white with brown markings. The male is slightly smaller and tan with brown markings.
During May and June when it exists as a caterpillar, the moth eats large amounts of leaves. Its diet consists of more than 500 species of trees and shrubs.
The scent of a woman
The traps being set out across the North Olympic Peninsula and elsewhere are orange or green A-shaped cardboard boxes that contain a female moth’s scent.
They can attract male moths from up to a mile away.
Once the traps are hung from trees and shrubs, they are checked every two to three weeks through September, Lundberg said.
The traps are set at a density of one per square mile.
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The rest of the story appears in Monday’s Peninsula Daily News.
