25,000 acres in West Virginia being treated against invasive moth

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WBOY) — Treatments against the invasive spongy moth, Lymantria dispar, have begun in West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle.

The West Virginia Department of Agriculture (WVDA ) first proposed the aerial treatments back in March for more than 26,500 acres . According to a WVDA release from last week, the treatment, which includes spraying a bacterium known as Foray 48B (BTK), was approved on 25,322 of those acres. Property owners had to sign off on the proposed treatment.

The areas are in Grant, Hardy, Hampshire, Morgan and Berkeley counties in West Virginia and are marked on the attached map.

According to the WVDA, spongy moths, also known as gypsy moths, have grown in population enough to kill some trees and could negatively affect water quality, recreation experiences, wildlife habitat and timber production in the future.

According to the release, the treatment “has a very low toxicity to all mammals and aquatic species.”

The treatments were set to begin last week.

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