In an effort to protect wildlife habitat, the Pennsylvania Game Commission plans to spray over a 123,000 acres of state game lands this spring to control a non-native invasive insect, the gypsy moth. 

Spraying is planned on 46 state game lands and will begin as soon as leaf-out occurs and spongy moth egg masses hatch, likely in late May. 

Paul Weiss, Game Commission chief forester said, “Hunters participating in spring turkey gobbler seasons or otherwise enjoying state game lands may encounter aircraft spraying forested areas for gypsy moths. We recognize some hunters might be temporarily affected by these activities, but disturbances are brief and only temporarily, and by protecting these valuable habitats against a destructive, invasive pest, the forest will provide hunters the opportunity to chase gobblers there for generations to come.” 

More information on gypsy moths and the Game Commission’s spraying programs, including a map updating the status of spraying, is available on web page at: pgc.pa.gov.

CWD Disturbing Report!

Researchers in Texas reported on a case in which two deer hunters contracted a rare and fatal brain disease after eating venison from deer infected by chronic wasting disease  (CWD). 

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control has said there’s no connection between their deaths and being exposed to CWD, but the report was disturbing and sent shock waves through hunting communities, especially in Pennsylvania where they are dealing with CWD in their deer herds. 

A team of neurologists in the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio presented the case at a conference. Both men hunted at the same lodge and consumed meat from the same deer population known to be infected with CWD, before each developed Creutzfeldt Jakob disease and died soon afterward, the report stated. 

Hunters in Bedford and Blair counties in Pennsylvania, where CWD is now endemic in the deer population, say their families won’t be eating anymore venison.