St. Clair County plans to spend over over a half million dollars to help prevent the spread of invasive caterpillars this springtime. Commissioners Thursday approved a bid from Al’s Aerial Spraying to treat nearly 5400 acers of land at a cost of nearly $95 per acer. Commissioner Duke Dunn chairs the Environment and Public Works Committee and told our Paul Miller they needed to act quickly in order to get the caterpillars, commonly known as gypsy moths, under control.
“With short notice, we’ve got to get these people into a contract, and a lot of these communities wouldn’t have been able to come up with the funds at this time,” said Dunn. “We did agree to cover the costs this year and we’re going to start negotiating for future years, where maybe we can start weaning the county off of it.”
Dunn says the county may ask individual municipalities to share the expenses if additional spraying is needed in the coming years. The largest amount of acreage needing treatment is located in Clyde Township. Spraying is scheduled to begin spring of this year.
