The New Jersey Department of Agriculture (NJDA) has announced a plan to treat approximately 1,471 residential municipal acres and about 1,500 state-owned acres in Burlington, Cape May, Passaic, and Sussex counties. The treatment aims to control the tree-damaging Lymantria dispar, dispar (LDD), formerly known as the gypsy moth.
“By treating these areas now, it will help prevent the spread of this pest and significantly reduce its populations for years to come,” said NJDA Assistant Secretary Joe Atchison III. “This program has been very effective over the last several years and helps save the many types of trees and plants it is capable of feeding on.”
An informational session was held in Ewing today to discuss the 2024 Aerial LDD Suppression program. Egg mass surveys were conducted from September to November in 2023.
Four municipalities in residential areas of Burlington, Cape May, and Sussex counties are recommended for treatment during spring 2024. Participation is voluntary. If towns agree to participate, treatments will occur in May and June. To qualify for the program, an area must have more than 500 egg masses per acre on average and be at least 40 acres in size. In Passaic County, the land recommended for treatment is state-owned.
In previous years, different areas were treated with varying extents: around 4,010 acres were treated in 2023; in 2022, 8,961 acres were recommended; only 50 acres received treatment in Cape May County in 2021; no recommendations were made for treatment during 2019 and 2020; between 2017-2018 about 3,900 acres were treated across multiple counties.
To combat the LDD moth effectively, NJDA alongside the Department of Environmental Protection employs Bacillus thuringiensis (B.t.), a biological insecticide that kills LDD caterpillars when ingested.
