On Wednesday, May 21st, City Parks Supervisor Dave Chavoya and I met with Dr. Bob Dowell and Mike Cleary from the State Department of Food and Agriculture along with Lisa Correia, Sonoma County Agricultural Commissioner, in a meeting they requested to update us on the Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM) situation. There is a 1.5 mile eradication area in Springs/El Verano with two 200-meter areas that will be treated with the “twist tie” method of spreading a pheromone that disrupts the mating habits of the LBAM. There are NO SPRAY plans for Sonoma County. No further LBAMs have been found since the last one found one month ago. Before attaching the twist-ties to the trees in the two 200-meter areas (one near Flowery Elementary and the other area near Ernie Smith Park), they will send letters to everyone in the two areas and then hold a public meeting. The twist ties are applied by technicians who attach 40-50 per tree in the infected areas. There are no known human impacts from the twist tie method, according to Food & Ag. Here is a photo I took of the twist tie.
