Gypsy moth aerial spraying begins Wednesday in Hamilton: What you need to know

Low-flying helicopters spraying pesticides will begin swooping over West Hamilton, Ancaster, Dundas and Flamboroughon Wednesday as part of the city's effort to fight back against an infestation of gypsy moths and caterpillars.

Spraying starts Wednesday, weather-permitting, and is expected to continue on Thursday and Friday from 5 a.m. to 7:30 a.m.

• Aerial spray program to reduce gypsy moths starts late May

The aerial attack of bio-pesticides is part of the city's strategy to take on the larvae of the invasive pest, which feeds of leaves at such a rate it can strip entire trees and forests, according to JeffSpeir, the city's manager of forest health

"They're quite small, but they're very hungry," he said. "What they can do is eat all of the leaves off a lot of trees in a short period of time."

Rolling road closures during fly-overs

Areas where spraying is taking place will see rolling road closures to avoid drivers becoming distracted by the low-flying choppers check out the city'sinteractive mapfor more information.

The pesticide uses a bacteria that needs to be ingested by the caterpillars before it can be activated, so it doesn't have any impact on humans, bees, petsor any other animals.

"It's safe," said Speir, adding the spray has been approved for use in urban environments.

"If individuals do want to take precautions they could just stay inside and make sure their windows are closed that's up to them entirely."

Paying millions to take on moths

The city's forestry section has been monitoring the moth population and recorded populations the required a pesticide control program in fall 2017.

Speir said council designated $1.95 millionto cover the war on gypsy moths this year,with another $550,000 set aside for 2019.

• City to spend $2.5 million to fight gypsy moth invasion

"It is a rather pricey program, but we're hoping to bring the population down beneath this public nuisance threshold and this will be cheaper than if all the trees died and we had to do all of the removal in the long run."

A second fly-over is alsoplanned for next week to make sure the the spraying is successful.

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