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The Frederick County Gypsy Moth task force met during the fall of 2008 and determined that a supplemental gypsy moth suppression program would again be needed in 2009 given the expected levels of infestation throughout the county.  Parkton Woodland Services was once again retained to provide administrative support and, the task force submitted bid requests to numerous spray contractors.  Helicopter Applicators provided the successful bid and were chosen as the spray contractor. 

To publicize this program the Task Force sent out individual mailings to previous year’s participants, submitted articles to local newspapers, and held a gypsy moth informational meeting at the C. Burr Artz Library  in Frederick City on December 4, 2008.

The failing economy of 2008 – 2009 had a fairly significant impact on this program.  Given budget constraints Frederick County was unable to offer monetary assistance to provide cost sharing.  In addition, the State of Maryland had to drop some of their anticipated spray blocks due to reduced funding levels thereby increasing participation in the supplemental program in some cases.  In addition, many private individuals cited poor economic conditions as reason for not participating in the 2009 program. 

Spraying for the Supplemental Program began on May 12, and concluded on June 1, 2009.  In total, nearly 300 landowners participated in this program treating some 5,400 acres.  All of these properties were sprayed with the insecticide Confirm at 3.5 oz/acre. The spring and summer of 2009 was characterized by cool, rainy weather.  These environmental conditions benefit the naturally occurring virus and fungus that suppress gypsy moth numbers.  The result of the public and private spray programs along with the prevailing climatic conditions  is that that gypsy moth populations had declined significantly without causing much defoliation.

These ground observations were confirmed after The Maryland Department of Agriculture, Forest Pest Management Section conducted its summer flight to determine levels of defoliation and noted no significant defoliation in any section of the county.  In addition, the Forest Pest Management Section is in the midst of their gypsy moth egg mass surveys and reports that no significant populations exist to warrant developing a spray block in 2010.  This survey is not yet complete so this might change. For now it appears that the gypsy moth populations have crashed and it looks like no significant spaying will be necessary in 2010 or the foreseeable future. 

Special thanks go out to those private citizens who assisted with this effort especially members of the Gypsy Moth Task force many of which spent significant time and effort on this project with no monetary gain.  Also thanks go out to the local jurisdictions who assisted  with this program especially Frederick County, legislators who helped acquire diminishing funds for this work, and those individuals in the MD Department of Agriculture, MD Department of Natural Resources, Parkton Woodland Services, and Helicopter Applicators that assisted with the spray effort.