PORT LUDLOW — State officials are vowing to not let gypsy moths get a foothold in Jefferson County.
Fourteen of the tree-eating moths were found in Port Ludlow last summer — the first cases on the North Olympic Peninsula since 1991.
On Monday, Department of Agriculture representatives sat down with more than a dozen Port Ludlow residents at the Beach Club to discuss eradicating the pests.
A naturally occurring insecticide will be sprayed in April or May on trees on an 18-acre site in Port Ludlow to get rid of the caterpillars before they transform into moths.
State Entomologist John Townsend said egg sacks, each of which can contain 1,000 caterpillars, will be removed.
One sack will be left behind and monitored.
As soon as caterpillars begin breaking out of the sack, spraying will begin within one to two days.
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The rest of the story appears in Tuesday’s Peninsula Daily News Jefferson County edition.