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State, feds partner to combat spongy moth

State and federal officials have partnered to combat the gypsy moth, now known as the spongy moth.

It’s a joint project with the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and the Allegheny National Forest.

]“It’s going to be a pretty big program,” Cecile Stelter, DCNR district forester said, including portions of the ANF (Allegheny National Forest) and Chapman State Park.

“We are just doing private lands,” she said. “We do not do private land anymore.”

According to a statement from the ANF, the treatments previously applied include “the aerial application of B.t.k. (Bacillus thuringiensis kurstaki) — a naturally occurring native bacterium — to the crowns of overstory trees.

“We are proposing to supplement that decision by expanding the range of approved treatment methods to include tebufenozide, Gypchek, and a protocol for approving the use of other methods in the future,” federal officials say.

Stelter said that she was aware of some private forest consultants who are undertaking some private spraying, as well.

“We are expecting to see spongy moth defoliation like last year,” Stelter said. “We expect to see it. We’re seeing a lot of egg masses.”

The spongy moth is what we used to call the gypsy moth.

The Entomological Society of America (EMA), the entity tasked with assigning these names, announced in a release last July that the name was being changed as part of a “program to review and replace insect common names that may be inappropriate or offensive.”

The “existing common names” for the moth — gypsy — “were identified as containing a derogatory term for the Romani people.”

The EMA calls the moth a “serious pest of North American forests, with caterpillars that feed on more than 300 species of trees and shrubs” and said 2021 brought “some of the largest outbreaks… in decades.”

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