Local News in Brief : Gypsy Moth Found in Northridge Trap

A gypsy moth has been found in a Northridge trap by state agricultural officials who are battling to rid the San Fernando Valley of a Mediterranean fruit fly infestation, but the discovery did not alarm them and pesticide spraying will not be required.

“It’s common to trap one moth. It’s not a biggie,” said Becky Jones, an associate economic entomologist with the state Department of Food and Agriculture. “We never treat on just one moth find.”

The trapping of five Mediterranean fruit flies led to spraying of the pesticide malathion in the Reseda area at the end of July. Since then, a sixth Medfly has been found in the area.

Female Mediterranean fruit flies lay their eggs in fruits and vegetables, rendering the produce inedible. The caterpillars that become gypsy moths eat an average of seven tree leaves a day.

Spraying for gypsy moths is done in the early spring, Jones said, in the year after moths are trapped. In the spring of 1987, a 40-acre residential area of Encino was doused several times with a pesticide because nine moths and a few moth egg masses had been found in that area the summer before, Jones said.

So far this year, she said, moths have been found in only four locations around Los Angeles--last week in Northridge, and in Newhall, Santa Monica and near Vernon.