The evolving use of insecticides in gypsy moth management

Abstract

The gypsy moth, an exotic defoliating insect, persists in the United States despite 100 years of attempts at eradication and management using many insecticides. Efforts to eliminate the pest in the Northeast eventually gave way to containment and suppression strategies using broad-spectrum, persistent insecticides. Those products have since been replaced by biologically based technologies that have fewer environmental impacts. With continued expansion of the gypsy moth into the South and Midwest-and with valuable forests at risk-there are renewed efforts to slow its spread with environmentally acceptable insecticides and to eradicate isolated outbreaks in new habitats far from the infested area.