New tack to combat moths on hold

Sonoma Valley land owners who put out yard signs telling the government to keep its scented twist ties off their properties got a temporary reprieve Tuesday when the plan to eradicate the light brown apple moth was sidetracked by a regulatory issue.

State agricultural workers had planned this week to place the 8-inch-long twist ties -- laced with a chemical that confuses the male moth -- in two neighborhoods northwest of Sonoma. Those areas were targeted after a single moth was found in each neighborhood earlier this year.

The twist tie application was postponed Tuesday, not because of neighborhood opposition but because federal agriculture officials belatedly realized that a creek runs through at least one of the two neighborhoods. As a result, the officials have asked U.S. Fish and Wildlife Agency experts to determine whether any endangered species live in or near the creek.

The prospect of the twist ties already has prompted more than a dozen neighbors in one affected neighborhood to place signs on their front lawns telling the state workers to keep out. Sonoma County Supervisor Valerie Brown, who represents Sonoma, said more than 20 neighbors have contacted the county to voice their opposition to the twist ties.

Both Brown and Assemblyman Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, said that the postponement of the twist tie application offers an opportunity for state and county officials to talk with the neighbors and address their concerns. The Board of Supervisors has scheduled a hearing on the matter July 8.

Brown and Huffman said they want residents to consider that the twist ties likely are a safer method for battling the apple moth than aerial spraying, an approach that both officials oppose.

If twist ties are rejected as an option, Huffman said, "we increase the likelihood that the planes are going to fly."

Resident Shelley Knight said her De Chene Avenue neighbors would welcome more information, but they aren't willing to let the government onto their properties without a better explanation of the threat from the moth and the safety of the twist ties.

"I think it's a community effort to pull together," Knight said of the yard signs rejecting the twist ties. "This is our neighborhood, our property, our kids."

The apple moth, a native of Australia, can feed on a variety of plants ranging from grapes to redwoods. It has been detected in most Bay Area counties and south to Monterey.

A U.S. Agriculture Department study concluded that if the state becomes "generally infested," the moth could cause $160 million to $640 million annually in crop damage. In response, the state and federal governments this year have undertaken a $75 million eradication program.

In reaction to the discovery of the two moths in the Sonoma Valley earlier this year, the state last month declared a 15-square-mile moth quarantine area extending from western Sonoma north to Eldridge.

Residents in the quarantine area are prohibited from taking plants and other "host materials" off their properties. Agricultural growers are required to allow trapping and inspections to show that their crops are free of the moths. The area includes about 2,500 acres of vineyards.

One neighborhood where the moth was found and where the twist ties are planned is near the intersection of Arnold Drive and Craig Avenue. The other is centered around Bokman Place in the residential neighborhood south of Flowery Elementary School.

The twist ties emit a synthetic pheromone similar to that of the female moth. The pheromone, which confuses the male moth, is dispensed by either the twist ties or aerial spraying. No such spraying is planned for Sonoma County, but the prospect of aerial spraying elsewhere has prompted an outcry and drawn opposition locally from the Sonoma City Council.

Officials and neighbors said the opposition to the twist ties took off after a Sonoma resident began walking door to door to let residents know they didn't have to allow the state workers onto their properties.

The resident, Yannick Phillips, who doesn't live in the quarantine area, questions the safety of the chemicals on the twist ties and believes that the moth "is no threat to our agriculture in Sonoma County or in California."

Steve Lyle, spokesman for the state Department of Food and Agriculture, said the state and federal government have put together a panel of worldwide experts who represent "the bulk of the world's research" on the moth, and they dispute both of Phillips' points.

U.S. Department of Agriculture spokesman Larry Hawkins said twist ties have been used in a dozen places in the state and "we haven't heard complaints from any of the other areas."

You can reach Staff Writer Robert Digitale at 521-5285 or robert.digitale@

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