RE: Light Brown Apple Moth update

Title: Message
Hi Margaret (and everyone else),
 
Here's a link to the California Dept. of Food and Agriculture's Light Brown Apple Moth Project:
 
In short, more moths have been found and the quarantine areas have grown (I'm now living in a quarantine zone and it wasn't one last spring, for instance). They haven't been doing a great job of informing the public--a lot of people I talk to have never heard of the LBAM. They're starting to apply pheromones to disrupt mating in some of the quarantine areas. There have been some protests in Monterey area over the proposed pheromone spraying program.
 
I think part of the problem is that there are a number of nearly identical small brown moths that are native to our area (or at least not considered a threat) and the only way to identify the true LBAM is by scraping off the scales and looking at the vein pattern on the wings. I'm not sure how many of us--even those of us who are concerned about the threat--are willing to scrape scales off a bunch of teeny moths.
 
By the way, Gamble Garden in Palo Alto is another recipient of the Urginea/Drimia bulbs, and they bloomed a week or two ago. Perhaps they bloom earlier when they're in soil?
 
Cheryl Renshaw
Santa Clara, California
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-medit-plants@ucdavis.edu [mailto:owner-medit-plants@ucdavis.edu] On Behalf Of khe36747
Sent: Sunday, September 16, 2007 5:45 PM
To: medit-plants@ucdavis.edu
Subject: dangerous plants

As a sort of supliment to the various discussions about alergy inducing and toxic plants that has been happening I thought I would share a story of a friend who found blood on the rampant roses growing underneath his office window and who has extended the 'security barrier' they provide to the perimeter of the whole office building. An Australian native plant grower near us has a variety of Grevillia asteriscosa which has leaves the size and shape of razor wire. He thought he might market it to the parents of teenage girls under the name 'Convent Wall'. Grevillias have endless possibilities as flowering security barriers I find - although they would not be likely to be the sorts of grevillias sold in foreign plant shops.
 
Oh, PS. it is definately spring here so I assume it is approaching autumn in California and I was wondering if there was any update on the Light Brown Apple Moth?? Has devestation ensued or is it a growing problem?
 
Margaret Healey
Near Ballarat
Victoria, Australia
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