General Aerial Operation On Today – Wednesday 14 May 2003

The general aerial operation to wipe out the painted apple moth, planned for yesterday (Tuesday 13 May), will get under way soon after first light this morning (Wednesday 14 May). Windy conditions delayed the start of the operation yesterday.

Today’s operation will take place across the scaled down general eradication zone. After a third cut in two months the entire zone is down to 6,500 hectares. The operation is weather dependent and is likely to take more than one day to complete.

Two fixed-winged aircraft and a helicopter will be used to carry out the operation. The aircraft will at times overfly sections removed from the aerial programme however when this happens the spray nozzles will be turned off. Some spray drift may be experienced.

Today (Wednesday) being a school day means the aircraft will be out of the air, as usual, between 8.00-9.00am, 12.15-1.00pm and 3.00-4.00pm – the times most children travel to and from school and eat their lunch.

The public can call the 24 hour free phone 0800 96 96 96 for updates and general information about the programme. People can also listen to Newstalk ZB 1080 AM or 89.4 FM, , 531 pi, AM 990 BBC and More FM 91.8FM for updates. To see a map of the eradication zone visit http:// http://www.maf.govt.nz/painted-apple-moth and click on ‘Latest update for residents in spray zone’.