Checkmate to be chucked?
Okay, this is my last light brown apple moth post this week, I swear!
On Thursday, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger postponed plans to spray much of the Bay Area (including Alameda) with a synthetic pheromone to rid us of the light brown apple moth so that a battery of toxicity tests could be performed by the feds. But what didn’t get announced was that the state may dump Checkmate in favor of spraying some other pheromone-based substance.
California Department of Food and Agriculture spokesman Steve Lyle confirmed today that the U.S. Department of Agriculture is testing other pheromone products for possible use in an aerial spray program. But the state and feds remain mum on what is being tested in the forests of New Zealand, though USDA spokesman Larry Hawkins said all the products will face the same “six-pack” of skin, eye, inhalation and other toxicity tests as the Checkmate products.
In the meantime, we’ll have to rely on the info in this New Zealand Press Association article on the testing.
