LAKE COUNTY – As the light brown apple moth continues to edge closer to Lake County, local officials are keeping an eye out for the pest, which could pose challenges for the pear industry locally.

Chuck Morse, the county's deputy agriculture commissioner, reported that the state Department of Food & Agriculture began sending lure to his department to begin trapping for the moth in March.

Many of the smaller counties like Lake, Glenn and Tehama, which have been trapping, haven't been included on the list of trapping counties updated weekly by the Department of Food & Agriculture and the US Department of Agriculture.

Lake County was finally added to the most recent situation report, not long after Lake County News brought the oversight to the attention of officials.

“We haven't been trapping at full levels,” he said, with 58 traps out locally until now.

This week, the ag department expects to have a full complement of 109 traps set around the county, said Morse.

He explained that the moth appears to get around by traveling with plant material.

“From an agriculture perspective, it can be pretty devastating if the agriculture community relies on exports,” he said.

Especially since Mexico earlier this month banned shipments of certain fruits, vegetables and plants from the nine counties where the moth has been found – Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Monterey, Napa, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Francisco and San Mateo.

With the moth reaching Napa County, the concerns for the moth's potential impact on Lake County become more serious.

Among the fruits Mexico banned from infested counties are pears, still a major commodity for Lake County agriculture.

Morse said to ship fruit to Mexico, you must have a phytosanitary certificate cleared by the agriculture commissioner. He reported that 95 percent of the phytosanitary certificates completed for Lake County are for Bartlett pears headed for Mexican markets.

“It would have a severe impact on the Bartlett pear industry's ability to ship that fruit to Mexico,” said Morse.

“That's scary for us up here in Lake County,” he said.

In the coming weeks, Morse said he expects state and federal officials will have a more complete statewide picture of the pest's spread and its possible effects.

Working group suggests eradication effort

Last week, a technical working group assembled by the USDA and the Department of Food & Agriculture met in San Jose to discuss the apple moth situation.

Larry Hawkins, a spokesman for USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, reported that the working group has advised that officials undertake an eradication effort, because they believe the infestation is new enough that the pest can be completely eliminated.

Hawkins said there have been questions for some time about whether or not the pest had been here, undetected, for some time.

The latest tally from the USDA and Department of Food & Agriculture reports 3,211 moths have been found in more than 23,000 traps in 45 counties.

The working group concluded that the moth's numbers would be greater if it had been here longer, since it goes through multiple generations in a year, said Hawkins. A longer infestation also would have led to more findings over a greater area of the state.

Hawkins said the working group's suggestions are now being discussed by USDA and Department of Food & Agriculture officials, who will come up with an eradication program. He said he expects to see that forthcoming in the next few weeks.

Mexican officials are due to visit California next week, said Hawkins, to see how the moth is being handled. He said state and federal officials plan to show them that measures being taken here are sufficient to protect them from the moth.

A Canadian delegation visited the state last week, Hawkins added, but Canada so far has not implemented any restrictions. No other countries have issued concerns, he said, with stringent inspections helping to keep trade intact.

In other light brown apple moth news, on Monday Sen. Patricia Wiggins' bill SB 556 passed the state Senate Appropriations Committee.

SB 556 proposes creating a light brown apple moth advisory task force to study the pest's potential environmental and economic impacts, which would result in a report to state Agriculture Secretary A.G. Kawamura by Sept. 1. Kawamura also would make the appointments to the task force.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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