Walking around or driving through Savannah, you may have noticed—in the past year—triangular green boxes hanging from trees all over the city. Those little green envelope-like boxes may be key to saving Savannah’s signature oak-tree canopy.
State of Georgia researchers have placed nearly 1,000 of the boxes all over Savannah to catch Asian Gypsy Moth, an invasive species that is known to devour tree foliage.
“In August of 2015 we caught one male, dead Asian Gypsy Moth in a trap,” said Chip Bates, forest health coordinator for the Georgia Forestry Commission. Though harmless to human health, officials are worried that if established in Savannah, the moth could kill off trees and harm the region’s bustling tourism and forestry industries.
The Forestry Commission has been conducting the survey off and on for years but after the one moth was discovered in 2015, they stepped up their efforts to monitor for additional insects.
“We think it’s much better to be proactive and to make sure that we don’t have an issue or if we do have something that’s coming in, that we can catch it,” Bates said. “We put the traps out. If you don’t want to catch something, don’t put a trap out.”
There are two types of moths that the Forestry Commission deals with, the North American and the Asian Gypsy Moth.
“The North American was brought in for silk production a hundred years ago. It escaped and steadily moved South,” Bates said. Asian Gypsy Moths are believed to travel on container ships like the more than 3 million ships that call on Savannah’s port each year.
In Virginia and Pennsylvania, the Asian gypsy moth has caused serious damage, defoliating trees and presenting a challenge to forestry workers. The main difference between the North American and Asian Gypsy moths lies in the fact that the North American doesn’t fly where the Asian Gypsy does. Asian Gypsy Moths also like more species of trees than the North American.
“The North American likes 60 different species (of plants), the Asian like 6,000 different species,” Bates said. “So everything you see around here is on the host list.”
In order to combat the potential problem the Forestry Commission has set up traps every quarter of a mile all over Savannah.
“The Forestry Commission has about 950 traps scattered from Savannah International Airport to the south side of the Truman Parkway,” Bates explained. “We try not to make them very hidden, to be honest, because we want people to know what we are doing.
“Inside of the trap, it’s just a six or eight inch delta trap. It’s got glue on the inside and it’s got a string that’s impregnated with a pheromone. Which is basically saying ‘we got an orgy going on over here.'”
Georgia has placed 950 traps like this one meant to test for the presence of Asian Gypsy Moths in Savannah.
Bates and his team check the traps every two weeks using a special app and bar codes to track each of the traps, record results and locate each trap. So far, the results have been positive.
“Through the survey for this year in Savannah we found nothing,” Bates said.
Bates advice for how the people of Savannah can help in the effort is simple: “Leave them alone, let them do their job,” he said, referring to the traps.
“Last year we would put these in some part of town and we would come back and they’d be completely smashed,” he said. “And we would put back another trap and it would be smashed. And we finally met one of the gentlemen that was doing that and he said, ‘We know that you’re watching us with those cameras inside of those boxes.'”
So far, Asian Gypsy Moths have not been harmful to Savannah’s treees, but tests will continue through 2018. If another moth is located, the three-year testing cycle will start again.
“It’s serious enough that we’re putting a lot of money into this,” Bates said. “We’re putting a lot of time into this and I’ve got me and three other crews actually out today all over Savannah doing this.”
Written by Asli Shebe.
Asli Shebe is a senior writing major from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. She began working for District in 2014 as a staff writer, then copy editor, A&E editor, Chief Assignment editor and finally, Editor-in-Chief in 2017. Asli currently holds the record for obtaining the most job titles during her time at District. When she’s not writing for District you can find her biking around the Historic District of Savannah at odd hours of the day.
