Spongy Moth Fly-Over Spraying Duluth and Holyoke

DULUTH, Minn.–Through Monday, low-flying airplanes will fly over the Duluth and Holyoke area.

These planes are carrying pheromones to prevent the spread of spongy moths. Formerly known as gypsy moths, spongy moths are an invasive species originally from Europe and are known to strip away leaves from trees. One female spongy moth can lay between 500 and 1,000 eggs. Spongy moths are known for laying their eggs anywhere outside on campers, boats, firewood, and trailers. Each year the Minnesota Department of Agriculture releases a pheromone pesticide to disrupt their mating season.

“So it’s very species specific. So we utilize aerial application with low-flying air crafts to apply the pheromone across a very large geographical area before the males come out to find females to mate,” said Pest Mitigation and Response Manager for Minnesota Department of Agriculture, Kimberly Thielen Cremers. “So it’s actually disrupting or confusing the males before they find females in which to mate.”

Friday, planes will fly over the Holyoke area in Carlton County. Then on Monday the 17, the airplanes carrying the spongy moth pheromones will fly over the Midway, East, and West parts of Duluth.

“More often or not, folks are not going to even notice that their is anything even coming out of the aircraft. I think that’s important for people to know,” said Cremers. “So they’re going to look up and see an aircraft fly over and they may not even see any product at all coming out of the aircraft, but that’s because it’s at such a low rate that we are applying.” 

In addition to tracking the spread of spongy moths, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture is using the help of people to set out insect traps in order to estimate where they spread. For text updates and to see the areas being sprayed visit here.