It has come to our attention that Ruth Framton took the contract for production and supply of the pheromone used to attract the male painted apple moth, away from John Clearwater of Clearwater Research and gave it all to Stephen Goldson and Ag Research because they were mates.
They struck a problem not only when they could not replicate the pheromone but also when they found out that Clearwater had the patent to the pheromone and Ag Research could not replicate it without paying for it. Ruth Framton gave Ag Research lots of time to develop a pheromone but they were unsuccessful, finally using Clearwater Research through some arrangement.

At the beginning of the painted apple moth scare there was a small number detected, on black wattle trees on a property in Avenger place, (how they got there has not been established). The interesting part about this is that Ruth Frampton was probably correct in making a small cost effective effort to contain them if it were only nature taking part in their spread, as the female moth does not fly and the caterpillars are not known for their speed or long distance stamina! So the 85 million dollar question is how did the eleven moths found spread in such a short period of time?Two possible sources are Clearwater Research and AgResearch as both eventually had female moth supplies in order to replicate a suitable pheromone.

It is hardly likely that average Joe Kiwi would even inadvertantly bring them into the country, and MAF loves their poisons so it is also hardly likely they missed spraying a container or anything imported that is likely to have insects or snakes in it.

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