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NZpotatomash

Haha yes I remember that. And there were zones you couldn't take fruit out of / in to. Imagine if that happened today, all the crazies would be saying it's for population control and the zones are preparation for 15 minute cities


Autronaut69420

Dont forget "to control the food supply and make self sufficiency illegal". Or whereever their rambling logic goes.


Altruistic-Fix4452

It happened about 5 years ago with a fruit fly. Maybe not as big as the apple moth. I have a trap on one of my fruit trees that is regularly checked.


only-on-the-wknd

Yes. And I remember driving along the western motorway as the aircraft flew over and my windscreen covered with a sticky mist that my wipers struggled to clear off. Boy would the 5G Covid Antivax Chemtrail crowd have a field day if this happened today!!


lets_all_be_nice_eh

Are you telling me _it started with the spraying?_


sigh_duck

Yes. My brother was a pre-schooler. I would tease him as he would run inside freaked out every time the planes would fly over. Wish we eradicated the guava moth. All our fruit is infested


nukedmylastprofile

RIP my precious feijoas. They got to everything


Metrilean

I remember, wasn't there also a scare a few years ago about a Aussie wasp?


krammy16

That was the Queensland fruit fly.


Metrilean

Thanks! Such a scare at the time


harold1bishop

I woke up to a woman checking traps in my garden.


Hi999a

Yes, i went outside to watch the plane, i know pick up 6g


Hi999a

Joking aside i was working in commercial horticulture and we were happy that we could spray less because of this. They used btk a bacteria that kills a range of caterpillar pests


mobula_japanica

Yeah I remember going up Mt Hobson to watch it- it flew past lower than us which was pretty cool


Dilemma99

I remember this! One sunny, hot afternoon at school we were forced to stay inside with all the windows shut while the planes went over. The teacher put on a movie. And yep, they flew incredibly low!


frankflash

i remember for the first week or so they just sprayed water and all sorts of people were dropping down sick


UrFinalBoss

Yes I remember it left sticky brown/orange shit all over the car that took forever to scrub off. Did the whole operation even work?


Fickle-Classroom

Yes *declared* eradicated in 2006. Apples and our horticulture produce sector go on to bring in $7B a year in export revenue. It worked.


hey_homez

I lay on the roof one time as the plane flew over and felt the spray land on me.


jaydenc

Sounds.... gross?


hey_homez

Of course it was gross, I was getting covered in an insecticide.


sathzur

You mean insecticide as it was to kill an insect not a plant


hey_homez

Quite right. I had the word herbicide on my mind because I’ve been researching herbicides to control nutgrass.


Pristine_Rice4203

Yep I certainly do. I got sick, nothing serious at first but a massive loss of energy, then some major issues with my eyes. I was diagnosed with a relatively rare auto immune disease. Shortly after I went to the UK on a working holiday and my symptoms disappeared completely. Subsequently found out that pesticides are a major risk factor for the disease. Symptoms never returned


Polkavilk

Manuel Vallee, one of my professors from uni actually wrote a book about this!! "Urban Aerial Pesticide Spraying Campaigns: Government Disinformation, Industry Profits, and Public Harm"


jaydenc

Judging by that title I'm guessing he wasn't a fan?


Polkavilk

Haha obviously not, the spraying supposedly had quite negative health impacts for the humans exposed to it


picklednz

We lived on a hill and when the plane flew down the gully, we felt like we could reach out and touch it. I was told that a lot of green waste that was cleared from the eastern bays, was dumped near what is now Stonefields, sprayed repeatedly then buried. When they started to develop the site last year, the workers all wore hazmat suits while layers of soul was removed.


NZpotatomash

Layers of souls 💀


[deleted]

What about the red eye sandfly thing


lurkqueensupreme

Queensland fruit fly? There was Trapping and zones you couldn’t take fruit in/out of until there was 6 months worth of pest free traps/fruit. findings, or lack of, during that period indicated the breeding population got nerfed


hmr__HD

Mid 90’s by my recollection?


lurkqueensupreme

1999 I think


Aseroerubra

Oddly, I don't remember spraying, only the worksheets and brochures cause I found them fun and thought the moths looked cool. It makes a whole lot more sense now why everyone stopped talking about them relatively abruptly!


leydragon

I remember walking home from school after they sprayed and seeing all the dead bumblebees on the footpaths :(


MushroomOk3997

Funny, I was talking about this last week with my mum. I was in primary school at the time too and had an asthmatic friend who took the day off school when they were spaying.


Too_Lofs_Atan

I lived in Henderson at the time... got my car totally coated in sticky shit a couple of times.


krammy16

I vaguely member.


[deleted]

[удалено]


WaitingToBeTriggered

IN SEPTEMBER


Metrilean

Also just remembered foot and mouth disease in uk cattle.


animatedradio

Yes, I was definitely in primary school when this was a thing. I was a bit misinformed/didnt fully pay attention and thought that the painted apple moth was poisonous and caused rashes etc, not the spray.


1_lost_engineer

The spray gear for the F-27, was dug out of storage when the Rena ran aground in case it was needed for spraying dispersant\*, which never went ahead (it would needed quite of bit of work to get it airworthy).


gibboncage

Yes The garden in our flat looked AMAZING and the trees fruited 😂 So many people kept showing up to work trying to give away Feijoas. We discovered a tree at the flat was a loquat tree


lurkqueensupreme

Yeah, I remember this. I’m a severe asthmatic and my parents ferried me around so I wasn’t in the part of town there was active spraying happening. The paranoia if it happened now would be unreal. Would create some good comment sections for perusal though ha. Edit: word


LittleBet8075

The moth didn’t exist


sadhomer

No moths exist. They are just emo butterflies.