Notes from the meeting held on April 10, 2001 to discuss our village's Gypsy Moth Problem This spring the Ohio Agriculture Department presented at Glen Helen it's plan to slow the spread of the Gypsy moth by treating an area found to be infested here. The Village Council, without consulting the Tree Committee or inviting citizen discussion of the topic in council meetings, voted to write to the state and refuse the treatment. [ Village letter ] The Ohio Department of Agriculture responded with this offer of more information. [ photo of Ohio letter ] The tree committee discussed the issue in their next meeting. Some members offered to study the problem and the possible solutions and present their findings at a special meeting. The special meeting of the Tree Committee was held to discuss the coming invasion of our area by the Gypsy moth. Several members reported on their research of the threat of the gypsy moth to our trees (and health) and several approaches being used elsewhere to control the spread of the pest. Addressed were the mechanism by which each control works, how it is applied, its effectiveness, the risk to humans and the environment, and the cost. After a question and answer period, the committee decided to support the plan offered by the state to distribute a gypsy moth specific sex attractant which has been shown to be very effective in situations like ours. We decided to write to the village council to ask them to reverse their decision which turned down the free treatment. Here is the [ letter we sent to council ] We have also placed in the library copies of some of the material we studied for our reports, so you can come to your own conclusion. Update, Spring 2002: In the Summer of 2001 the John Bryan State Park, Village of Clifton, Glen Helen, and other communities were treated using the pheromone and traps were placed there and within Yellow Springs to measure the effectiveness of the treatment. The Ohio Department of Agriculture reported to Village Government on the results of the 2001 season trapping program within the village.

Read about what we found 020925m gypsy