Funds Asked to Spray for Worms: Arborist Seeks City’s First Aerial Spraying Since 1998 to Try to Save Trees

By Nancy Brachey, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.

Sep. 29–Stepping up the battle against tree-destroying cankerworms, Charlotte city arborist Don McSween is recommending aerial spraying of trees in 40 percent of the city next April.

The new plan, which includes extensive tree banding this fall, would cost $2.8 million.

McSween will present the plan to the Charlotte City Council on Monday, and a decision is expected Oct. 8. Adjusting the city budget to find the money is likely to be a big part of the discussion.

If approved, it would be the first time since 1998 and only the third time the city has paid for aerial spraying in the long battle against leaf-devouring cankerworms. The tiny caterpillars hatch in early spring and feed on newly emerging leaves, causing defoliation and declining health to trees.

This year, trees have been hard hit by a triple blow: widespread cankerworm defoliation in early April, a damaging late freeze just as trees releafed, and the current drought.

McSween says 50 percent to 60 percent of trees in the hardest-hit neighborhoods now show stunted growth, yellow-green foliage or sparse canopies. He says another defoliation could kill weakened trees.

McSween says aerial sprays in Charlotte in 1992 and 1998 proved “the most effective means of decreasing fall cankerworm populations.” Approval for spraying will not eliminate the need for sticky bands on tree trunks this autumn. The bands trap cankerworms in the wingless moth stage on the trunks en route to the treetops, where eggs are laid through the winter.

The area designated for spraying is about 73,000 acres approximately from Sedgefield, then east and north to the Derita and University areas. It includes Dilworth, Freedom Park, Myers Park, Eastover, Cherry, Elizabeth, Chantilly, Cotswold, Plaza-Midwood, Country Club Heights and Derita.

McSween says that is significantly more territory than the most recent spraying, in 1998, which was 5,580 acres and kept the population down for about eight years. In 1992, spraying covered 1,300 acres. McSween recalls no complaints following the two previous sprayings. The product to be used, a naturally occurring organism called Bacillus thuringiensis, causes no harm to humans or other animals.

He says it is used by farmers to control caterpillars on food and bears one of the safest designations given by the state and federal governments.

News of McSween’s recommendation on aerial spraying cheered people who have wrestled with the cankerworm problem.

“The urban forest is in decline, and cankerworms are a big piece of the puzzle,” said neighborhood leader Dennis Frost of Country Club Heights in east Charlotte. “The fear is, the way it’s going, if the trees get stripped again, they might just give up. They are really stressed.”

That is also the view of certified arborist Patrick George of Heartwood Tree Service. He says the drought has made the problem worse as it continues to weaken trees.

“I’m frankly quite scared,” he says, explaining that another infestation next spring could be just enough to kill them.

“We don’t just love trees, we need them.”

$2.8 Million Proposal to Fight Cankerworm

–Banding of 5,500 street trees this fall: $165,OOO.

–Aerial spraying next April of 73,000 acres : $2,600,000.

–Educational brochure development and printing: $10,000.

–Grants to neighborhoods to help with tree banding: $40,000.

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