Once again, the Illinois Department of Agriculture will tackle a persistent environmental problem in DuPage County. But there’s a slightly newer name attached to invasive species of moths classified as Lymantria dispar, which were previously known as “gypsy moths.”

Last July, the Entomological Society of America officially dropped this common name for the destructive insect because it has always been an ethnic slur against Roma. According to the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Entomology, the new common name is “gypsy moths” because it visually describes the appearance of the egg clusters laid by female moths.

To slow the spread of gypsy moths, the Illinois Department of Agriculture is planning another round of aerial treatments at select sites in the DuPage County Forest District.

On June 27 and 28, the state agency will deploy a low-flying aircraft to spray “pheromone mating disruptor” at the preserved sites of Waterfall Glen near Darien, Des Plaines Riverway near Burr Ridge, Hidden Lake near Downers Grove and Wood Ridge near Citron.

“The good news about a pheromone treatment is that it is a non-lethal way to control the moth moth population,” said Andres Ortega, ecologist at the DuPage County Forest Preserve District.

Ortega said the female moth pheromone mimic is attached to a wax-based product that biodegrades. The intended effect is to trick the male butterflies into thinking that the female butterflies are there, so they will hopefully wear themselves out trying to search for non-existent females.

“You waste their time until those males expire, and then you have much, much less eggs laid that year — ideally,” Ortega said. “The goal is not direct control for this season, but more for the future next year.”

The caterpillars of the gypsy moth primarily target oak trees and strip them of their leaves. Ortega said even healthy oak trees are unlikely to survive two or three repeated seasons of defoliation by a major infestation of gypsy moth caterpillars.

“They probably won’t be eradicated, unfortunately,” Ortega said. “The goal is to slow their spread.”

For more information on aerial pheromone treatments, visit the Illinois Department of Agriculture at slowthespread.org or call the agency’s DeKalb office at (815) 347-0401. For more information about Preserve Forests, call (630) 933-7200 or visit dupageforest.org.