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Article from: weeeklt times now
Bugs bite blue gums
Kate Dowler

October 8, 2009
WALL-to-wall blue gum plantations have been blamed for a native caterpillar causing havoc in far-western Victoria.

The caterpillar, known as Boisduval's Autumn Moth, has stripped plantation blue gums and gum trees on farmland in the Dergholm, Dorodong and Powers Creek districts.

Trees have also been stripped southwest of the Grampians at Victoria Point.

A Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment spokesman said the moth was not previously known to be abundant enough to be a serious problem.

"However, the creation of an artificial single species eucalypt monoculture may have inadvertently resulted in a situation where the species is able to become more abundant than it normally is," he said.

But the DSE expects the trees to survive and re-shoot in summer.

One Dorodong farmer said in recent years he had noticed other insect outbreaks spreading through blue-gum plantations.

"I suspect it is caused by having a monoculture of blue gums that have not been well managed and sprayed for these things," he said.