Minnesota first used Btk for spongy moth in 1984. Since then, approximately 50 sites in the state have been treated for the insect. Only one area has needed to be retreated. Why was a retreatment needed? It is likely the original treatment area was too small to eradicate all the spongy moths. The MDA strives to find the right balance when drawing treatment areas.
We do our very best to design our management blocks as small as possible yet large enough to avoid missing the spongy moth population and having to conduct a second year of application. In addition, we want to treat the population as quickly as possible to avoid the population from expanding and thus resulting a much larger treatment area in following years.
Minnesota first used Btk for spongy moth in 1984. Since then, approximately 50 sites in the state have been treated for the insect. Only one area has needed to be retreated. Why was a retreatment needed? It is likely the original treatment area was too small to eradicate all the spongy moths. The MDA strives to find the right balance when drawing treatment areas.
We do our very best to design our management blocks as small as possible yet large enough to avoid missing the spongy moth population and having to conduct a second year of application. In addition, we want to treat the population as quickly as possible to avoid the population from expanding and thus resulting a much larger treatment area in following years.
