Monitor Gypsy Moth Populations for Slow the Spread Program

Kentucky will be participating in the Slow The Spread (STS) program during 2004 and the program shall be administered through the Office of State Entomologist in the Department of Entomology. University of Kentucky. Personnel involved with the program are Dr. John Obrycki, State Entomologist and Carl Harper and Joe Collins, Nursery Inspectors, a supervisor, trapping supervisor/data manager and three surveyors. For the 2004 program, the surveyors will be trapping in thirty-three (33) quadrangles. which will take in all or part of a nine (9) county area. The nine counties include: Lawrence. Boyd. Carter. Greenup, Lewis, Fleming. Mason, Elliott. and Rowan. All counties \vill be trapped using a 2 kilometer trapping grid. Kentucky will be using the Pocket PC and Magellan 3 t 5 GPS units for the STS survey following the STS protocols for entering the data. The Pocket PC will be the primary data collection device and the Magellan 315 will be used as a backup if the other should fail. The STS Foundation has established the procedures for data collection using the Pocket PC and will provide training and manuals. For data collection using the Magellan 3 t 5 this would include: Quad Code, Trap ID. Omit Reasons, Trap Condition, Moth Catch, Pass or Fail. Failure Reasons. These codes will be used at the proper time during the trapping season. All trap site visits require (if used) the Magellan 315 GPS unit to be stationary for at least 1 minute before pressing "MARK" to save the location. This allows for the unit to get a good "average" GPS location. For each site, a paper record will be filled out as a back up to the GPS file, with the UTM coordinates and the same information as placement, inspection, and quality control visits. Surveyors \vill be provided ""lith a Pocket PC and Magellan 315 GPS unit, desktop computer for the GPS dovmload. and all supplies need to do the survey properly. They must provide their own hammer and vehicle. We will be using the STS trapping protocol for the 2004 trapping season. However. Kentucky will not be navigating off road to the predetermined grid locations. They will stay on the highway system. for safety concerns, but they will get as close to the predetermined site as possible. The surveyors will submit to the Office of State Entomologist, travel vouchers for expenses incurred while doing the survey such as phone calls, postage, etc. They will also call and submit by mail the number of hours they have worked during the week. If a suspect moth is captured then the surveyor will mail it to the Office of State Entomologist for verification. If the moth is positive. then the surveyor \\ill go to the area and place "delimiting" traps in the area to see if there are any more moths in that location. The Kentucky Slow the Spread Program will have a supervisor. The supervisor's duties will include trap placement (if necessary) and regular checks to make sure that the other surveyors are placing their traps properly and keeping accurate records. The supervisor will be the liaison between the trapper and the manager of the program, fielding questions and performing the tasks necessary for the surveyor to do their job properly. The supervisor will also download the Pocket PC or GPS units of the 3 surveyors and send them, via a laptop computer, to the Office of State Entomologist for reviewing and for correction of errors and then they will be fonvarded to Virginia Tech. They will be downloading a minimum of once per week, the trap placement or a check on that trap during the season. Surveyors will be checking each other as part of the quality control to see that all are doing the job properly. Someone from the Office of State Entomologist for quality control will also monitor them periodically during the season.