SOQUEL — The majority of the light brown apple moths in California have been trapped in Santa Cruz County, and Wednesday, the federal government stepped into the fray, prohibiting all nursery stock from being shipped out of state unless it's first inspected for the moth.
Although the federal quarantine order applies to eight counties along the Central Coast and the San Francisco Bay Area, Santa Cruz County Agricultural Commissioner Ken Corbishley said his office is having a difficult time enforcing the quarantine.
With only 10 inspectors on hand, he's waiting for 10 more to come from the Department of Food and Agriculture, which is working to find them and hire them.
But the influx of new manpower might take a while, he said.
Until then, Corbishley said, it's up to the individual businesses on the receiving end to decide whether they want to accept merchandise that's coming from a county where the light brown apple moth has been detected — a moth that loves to feed off of 250 plants.
"We're at a crisis of not having enough people and personnel," said Corbishley, whose office so far has declared 13 nurseries in Santa Cruz County to be moth-free but still has 60 more to inspect.
Eggs and caterpillars from the moth, which is native to Australia, have been found at two nurseries in Soquel. The owners have since killed them by spraying their stock with Dursdan, a pesticide, Corbishley said.
Tiedemann Nursery on Cherryvale Avenue in Soquel is one of the businesses.
"They'll be back in about a month to inspect again. It's government at work, and it's something that has to be done," said owner Jon Beard, who sells to independent nursery retailers across the state. "This is a new bug. It's something we need to look at. But most of the impact is going to be international. It could turn out to be what mad cow disease is to Japan, but hopefully it won't"
Already, plant health officials from Mexico and Canada have been calling the U.S. Department of Agriculture for more information on the moth, said Larry Hawkins, a spokesman for the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service in Sacramento.
"Whether there will be restrictions in other countries depends on the country," he said. "But so far no countries have put a halt to any trade as a result of the moth"
Since March 22, Hawkins said 1,632 moths have been trapped in eight Northern and Central Coast counties. The majority, or 1,300 of them, were found in Santa Cruz County, within in a nine-mile radius of the Soquel area.
In Monterey County, the bulk of the moth findings have been between Highway 156 and Pajaro where about 25 moths were discovered. None of the 20 nurseries in that area — the first moths were in Prunedale and Las Lomas — have the moth, according to Bob Roach, assistant agriculture commissioner.
The inspections have "largely been done," Roach said. "We looked at many of the nurseries in the area that we now know to be infested. We have not found any infested nurseries in Monterey County"
Although it's much too early to tell what kind of financial impact the moth will have on California's nursery crop industry, inspectors have their hands full, and the potential for infestation doesn't just stop at the nursery crops.
Pick virtually any fruit, and the moth, an A-rated pest, has been known to feed on its leaves, including strawberries.
Jess Brown, executive director of the Santa Cruz County Farm Bureau, said, "This is going to affect just about everybody and every crop except for the redwoods"
And growers are just now beginning to become acquainted with that fact.
"We could be held hostage for quite a while," said Dave Cavanaugh, who's grown ornamental plants in Watsonville for nearly three decades. "After all, we're talking about an adult moth that's mobile. Even if you deal with it by spraying, it could fly into your nursery and you'll have to deal with it again"
Although Cavanaugh's business, Cavanaugh Color, has not been affected yet, he said it could cost him as much as $700 to spray his nursery if the moth is found.
But the worst aspect of the presence of the moth is how the subsequent spraying could upset the balance of pest management.
"We have all sorts of predatory insects and other bugs and fungi that kill aphids," he said. "We have a whole series of things in place that help keep the population of insects at bay. But when you spray your entire nursery, you're going to kill those predators"
Contact Tom Ragan at mailto:tragan@santacruzsentinel.com?subject=Feds quarantine 8 counties with light brown apple moth.
Light brown apple moth
Scientific name: Epiphyas postvittana.
How many: 1,632 in eight counties.
Of those: 1,300 found in Santa Cruz County, mostly Soquel area.
Which counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Monterey, Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, San Francisco and San Mateo.