Sterile LBAM Release Plan Draws Criticism from Scientists
Measure deemed "impossible" and pointless; state fires back
Story by Curtis Cartier
Despite scaling back plans to use aerial pheromone spray to eradicate the light brown apple moth, the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s newest plan to release millions of sterile moths as a reproductive monkey wrench is coming under fire from many of the same opponents who stood up against the spray.
“Basically, there is no way it will work,” says James Carey, an entomologist at UC Davis who specializes in invasive species biology. “The bottom line is there is no evidence that a lepidopterous pest has been eradicated by this technology. They are talking about rearing enough (sterile) moths to release over a 500-square-mile area. That’s 500 million moths per week, and it’s impossible.”
The Sterile Insect Technique was developed in the 1950s and has been used with some success against the screwworm, the Mediterranean fruit fly and the pink bollworm moth. By overwhelming a breeding population with infertile moths, the technology banks on fooling the insects into thinking they’ve reproduced when they’re essentially shooting blanks. The CDFA is promising that after a few reproductive cycles, the moths should die out.
“We said from the offset that the sterile release program would work and that that’s where we should be headed,” says CDFA Director of Public Affairs Steve Lyle. “We’ve had tremendous success with the Medfly, and opponents who argue against this technology really have no data to back them up. In fact, most of them have no experience studying the LBAM.”
Other scientists, like Dan Harder, botany professor and director of the UCSC Arboretum, say the CDFA is trying to discredit the scientists instead of the science.
“The LBAM issue is extremely important to the Central Coast and to me as a botanist,” says Harder. “The fact is, I’ve done extensive research including an extended trip to New Zealand and Australia, where these things are from, and I’ve found: one, they’re not that big of a problem; and two, there is little to no chance of getting rid of them.”
Nearly one year ago, the CDFA sprayed areas of Santa Cruz, Capitola, Scotts Valley and other areas of Santa Cruz County with pheromones as part of their effort to eradicate the LBAM. In May of this year, a Santa Cruz County judge ruled that the sprayings were a violation of the California Environmental Quality Act and ordered the CDFA to stop spraying over populated areas. In June, the CDFA announced the SIT program as an “unanticipated breakthrough” that, along with continued spraying in “rural areas” and using other pheromone-releasing devices like pheromone “twist ties” that hang from trees, is supposed to represent the latest and best in the fight against invasive species. Lyle says the sterile release program, once in full swing, will produce more than 20 million sterile moths per day and that the agency hopes to release the first batch in the spring of 2009.
“We at the CDFA have scientists who represent the bulk of research regarding the LBAM,” says Lyle. “Science has shown this sterile release program will work. And the one thing we’d like people to do is to use our science as their foundation as opposed to the opposition’s science.”
And after poking holes in all the ideas put out by the CDFA, what is the “the opposition’s science” recommending?
“First off, this thing needs to be reclassified from a Class A pest,” says Harder. “Eradication is not possible, and further, it’s not necessary. It needs to be contained, sure, but it’s not the kind of problem the CDFA is making it out to be.”
