Laserfiche WebLink
• PAGE 35 <br /> TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1986 <br /> THE WALL STREET jouRNAL <br /> O IQteS Doti long is Company. Inc ANI RTIn Re,erwd • • • <br /> Bad News From the Gypsy-Moth Front <br /> he final damage reports are in from this summer's battle <br /> with the gypsy moth and the news Is bad.The pest that dines <br /> on the leaves of oaks and other valuable hardwoods ex- <br /> panded its range in 1986.edging into the Middle West and the <br /> Old South.Gypsy moths also defoliated 2.5 million acres from Maine <br /> to Virginia,40' more acreage than a year earlier. Bug experts say <br /> this reflects a natural population increase that has at least two more <br /> years to run before the gypsy moth's natural enemies take charge <br /> and force the population downward. <br /> Healthy trees can usually handle three successive years of <br /> defoliation by the caterpillar stage of the gypsy moth. But in the <br /> Southeast,where the moth Is making inroads,last summer's devas- <br /> 0 rating drought has left trees badly stressed and less able to with- <br /> stand gypsymoth attack. "Until we get back into normal weather <br /> patterns,we may see higher than normal mortality,"says Joel Art- <br /> man, a forest pathologist with Virginia's forestry department. <br /> The line of advance now cuts roughly along the Pennsylvania- <br /> w000border <br /> forests important to the furnith through West ureaindustry and tare increasinglyral nia. rat <br /> risk. In Michigan,a large gypsymoth infestation tripled ave wiped ast last <br /> year.but an aggressive spraying program appears <br /> most of a modest gypsy-moth concentration In western Oregon. <br /> ID <br />