Minnesota fights advancing gypsy moth

Inside the trap
If gypsy moths are found in this area during the summer, the area will be sprayed in an effort to eliminate the emerging insects. Officials say control efforts are quite successful if moth populations are found early.
MPR Photo/Dan Gunderson

The gypsy moth arrived in North America in the 1860s, brought by a Frenchman hoping to create a new silk industry.

The moths escaped and with few natural predators to control the population, they've been spreading ever since.

The gypsy moth expands its territory less than 15 miles a year, except when it gets help from people.

That's why John Haanstad, who works for the USDA, is at a remote campsite on the Elm Lake Wildlife Management Area near Thief River Falls. This spot is used mostly by hunters in the fall.

Haanstad checks his laptop computer, where a map shows purple dots representing about 20 gypsy moth traps.

Gypsy moth
The gypsy moth was introduced to North America in an effort to create a silk industry. Moth populations exploded because it has no natural predators. Officials are spreading a fungus which kills the insect in hopes of slowing it's spread.
Courtesy Purdue University

Haanstad is helping other federal and state agencies find and control insect infestations.

He'll check gypsy moth traps in this isolated area some 200 miles from the state's eastern border because last fall, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found gypsy moths here.

"We caught two gypsy moths here so there's an introduction here," explains Haanstad. "But does it take? Is there a critical mass of gypsy moths to get established here?"

How did gypsy moths jump 200 miles ahead of the slowly advancing front line on the state's eastern border?

They most likely hitchhiked on a hunter's camping gear.

There are large populations of gypsy moths in Wisconsin, Michigan and many other states in the northeastern U.S.

Surveillance
Two gypsy moths were found in this remote campground last year. This year 20 traps are spread around the site to look for signs of an established moth population. The USDA's John Haanstad pinpoints each trap using a map and a GPS unit.
MPR Photo/Dan Gunderson

The USDA's John Haanstad, says hunters and campers should check their gear after traveling to Minnesota's north shore, Wisconsin or Michigan. He says the gypsy moth often lays it's eggs on firewood or camping gear.

"The gypsy moth egg mass is about the size of a silver dollar," Haanstad says. "They're very easy to see, the color is very distinctive. It's furry, salmon-colored, about the size of a silver dollar. You can't miss it."

On this damp July morning, John Haanstad is checking small cardboard traps that use a female moth pheromone to lure male gypsy moths into the trap.

DNR area Wildlife Manager Doug Franke tags along to learn about the gypsy moth, a new threat in his part of the state.

"DNR in this part of the state is pretty ignorant about gypsy moths, and we want to keep it that way," says Franke.

He worries about the gypsy moth impact on the oak savannahs that dot northwestern Minnesota

Franke says the DNR is stepping up efforts to educate hunters and campers.

"Our goal and hope is that people start getting it," he says. "Start understanding what they do every day and what action causes another action."

Gypsy moth trap
Each gypsy moth trap will be checked three times this summer. Male moths are attracted to the trap by a female gypsy moth pheromone which they can smell up to a mile away.
MPR Photo/Dan Gunderson

In the middle of a small aspen grove, one of the gypsy moth traps is stapled to tree. John Haanstad peers inside.

"There's a moth in this trap but it's not a gypsy moth because I can see it's antenna," he says. "You want to come around and see it, Doug?"

Hanstaad points out to Doug Franke the insect's long thread-like antenna. A gypsy moth's is feathery and he describes how you can see feathers on the antenna. Haanstad will be check these traps two more times this summer and this spot will be monitored again next year.

If more gypsy moths are found, the area will be sprayed to eradicate the insects.

Haanstad says if the gypsy moths are found quickly, they can almost always be successfully controlled.

"There are introductions we probably don't even see." he says. "That's how gypsy moths are spread in the environment. We're lucky to see this one. Maybe we can get a handle on a population that might be starting here. "

This remote northwestern campground is one of the deepest incursions the gypsy moth has made in to Minnesota.

But new hot spots pop up each year. Just last week a gypsy moth caterpillar was found in Itasca State Park, riding in with campers from Madison, Wisconsin.

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture does most of the gypsy moth monitoring in Minnesota, scattering about 20,000 traps around the state every year.

MDA Gypsy Moth Trapping Coordinator Kimberly Thielen Cremers says much of the gypsy moth expansion in Minnesota is because of human activity. She says stopping those small populations saves trees and money.

"For every dollar we spend on this early detection program, we are saving the state $22, was the gypsy moth to become established and all the damage that's done once it's here. We need to control the population," says Thielen Cremers.

Minnesota officials say with no statewide gypsy moth infestation yet, the best protection is good surveillance.