Mothra versus California

In “Mothra Vs. Godzilla,” Mothra devastates a city while in its larval stage only to re-emerge from its cocoon to join Batra in the fight against Godzilla. Together they save society at large, and the terrified citizens go from fear of Mothra to understanding and living in harmony with it.
Well, Mothra has come to California.

In a past post, it was explained that it is the Light Brown Apple Moth larva that threatens to damage our agriculture and the planned August aerial spraying over urban populations in California (including the Bay Area) in an attempt to eradicate it. The FruitGuys has launched an online resource for our readers who are interested in learning more about this issue. For complete disclosure, I am a San Francisco resident with small children and am thus predisposed to not being sprayed with a pheromone-chemical mix that may have caused respiratory distress when applied to urban areas in central California last fall. However, I also greatly value accurate and truthful information, and when faced with new data, I want to investigate it to understand all perspectives. My goal is to develop a resource on our website that looks at all sides of this issue to determine what is real, what is hype, what the options are to deal with Mothra, and what is ultimately, in my opinion, the safest choice.

It was eye-opening for me to hear this week from some of our organic and sustainable farmers that while they are concerned about potential health risks associated with CheckMate (the spray) they have more significant concerns about the potential damage the moth could do if measures are not taken now to eradicate it. Some expressed that if it is not sprayed, for now, it will inspire the increased use of a wide array of more harmful chemical pesticides across the state. It is a complicated issue and one I believe folks should be aware of.

For explanations and photos, please check out this week’s fruit mix.

Enjoy and be fruitful! – Chris Mittelstaedt chiefbanana@fruitguys.com