First light brown apple moth identified in San Diego County

Growers in San Diego County could soon be battling another pest that has already been found in 11 other California counties. The North County Times reports that county and state agricultural officials trapped the county’s first light brown apple moth (Epiphyas postvittana) in Bonsall earlier this month. San Diego County agricultural commissioner Bob Atkins told the newspaper the discovery of a second moth in the area would lead to a quarantine that would extend 1½ miles in every direction from the site of the captured moth. The paper said county workers have hung additional traps in the area.
Atkins said implementing a quarantine would have the biggest impact on nurseries since growers would be required to make pesticide applications to their plants before they were shipped.
In February, Calif. Dept. of Food and Agriculture released its final environmental impact report for the light brown apple moth program. The report determined that it was unlikely that the approaches in the program would cause human harm or environmental damage, and found that greater potential for human and environmental harm would come from widespread pesticide use by private parties and organizations in the absence of a program.
USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service published in the March 15 Federal Register its draft response to two petitions requesting that the agency reclassify the light brown apple moth as a non-actionable pest. Consideration will be given to comments received on or before May 14. Based on a thorough evaluation of the petitions, including an independent review of the agency’s evaluation by the National Academy of Sciences’ National Research Council, APHIS will continue to regulate the moth as a quarantine pest.