Gypsy moth spray Bacillus thuringiensis and other insects

[Brownout]

Reading the PA Outdoor news here, and an article reports that 22k acres will be sprayed with the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis(Bt)-it will cost half a million.

Reading about it on Wikipedia looking to understand how it operates and if it will kill other insect life. Found this, "The toxicity of each Bt type is limited to one or two insect orders, and is nontoxic to vertebrates and many beneficial arthropods. The reason is that Bt works by binding to the appropriate receptor on the surface of midgut epithelial cells. Any organism that lacks the appropriate receptors in its gut cannot be affected by Bt"

Uh, aren't some insect orders pretty huge????

 

[MattBoyer]

Treeless forests would probably kill a few more bugs.

Boyer

 

[osprey]

Can't get my head around massive spraying , why can't they use those traps (purple sticky things) or come up with something beside spraying?

 

[tomgamber]

read further..."Cry toxins have specific activities against species of the orders Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies), Diptera (flies and mosquitoes), Coleoptera (beetles), hymenoptera (wasps, bees, ants and sawflies) and nematode"

 

[RLeeP]

They've been using BT for a long time. So far, the earth has not fallen out of it's orbit.

I wish they didn't feel obliged to use anything. But of all the things they could be using, BT is far from the worst..

 

[MattBoyer]

From what I understand, it is a short-lived toxin that only effects the moths at a specific phase of their development. If sprayed too early or too late, it will have no effect at all. If you've ever lived in an area that has been inundated with them you can see first hand the devastation these larvae can cause. I'll have to ask my wife for more specific info on this subject, as she understands it much better than I do. I'll post what I find out.

Boyer

 

[Brownout]

@Matt Boyer. There is picture of the Allegheny Front in July on the Wikipeida page of gypsy moth-pretty bleak image.

 

[TYoung]

Gypsy moths have been a problem in the poconos for four or five years. I think that last summer was the first bad summer in the State College Area. This Summer they are going to be bad for the first time in the Clinton and Lycoming County areas. My family has a place in Waterville, Lycoming County. I was there this weekend and the Gypsy Moth larvae were eating our neighbors oak tree. For a while a thought that it might have been raining, but was just the larvae pooping. There poop covers everything. They tried to spray in Loch Haven but the plane that they were using had to make a crash landing.

TYoung