While the state Senate approved funds that would double the amount of land to be sprayed for gypsy moths this spring, one Centre County official says the bill, or a similar House measure, may come too late.

"Anything would be better than things right now. Central Pennsylvania is faced with widespread gypsy moth infestation and defoliation in 1990," said Daniel Pennick, Centre County gypsy moth coordinator.

Passed unanimously Monday, Senate bill 1399 would add $2 million to the state's gypsy moth program, increasing the number of acres to be sprayed to 400,000.

House Bill 2191, currently in the Appropriations Committee, would allocate $8.8 million to restore the funds lost in the state budget.

"Hopefully, (the Senate bill) will receive prompt attention and get sent to the governor's desk, and hopefully he will sign it," said Sen. J. Doyle Corman, R-Bellefonte. "(The House) can address ours, address theirs, or not address it at all."

The Senate legislation would increase the number of acres sprayed in Centre County from 1,780 to 33,560, while the House bill would restore enough funds to spray the area's original 906,000 acres, Pennick said.

Whichever bill passes, however, the funds must come before spraying this April and May, Pennick said, emphasizing that the lack of funds is a more serious problem this year because the potential for great defoliation exists.

"We appear to be in the cycle now where the population has the potential for defoliation. We haven't seen this level of egg masses in about eight years," Pennick said. "The timing just couldn't be any worse."

Like most counties in the state, Centre County splits the spraying costs with the state, with the county paying 25 percent, Pennick said.

This year, Centre County's cost is $4 per acre, and the state would pay $12, he said.

"Blair, Clinton, Clearfield, Centre --we all rely on the state through the Bureau of Forestry to assist in the program," Pennick said. "The state did not have adequate funds to cover its $12 per acre."

"Now the burden's just back on the homeowners. There will be a lot of unhappy people," he added.

Rep. Lynn Herman, R-Centre, said he has received no indication of when the House bill would be considered in the committee.

"We're going to try to get it out of committee soon," he said.

Pennick said the state money might go to the two counties which pay up front for the spraying (Allegheny and Lafayette) and are later reimbursed, which would leave the rest of the state without needed help.

Corman said the money would go to any county able to pay its percentage of the costs.

The nature of getting state funding hampers the program's effectiveness, since the program has no contingency funds and the funding cycle comes before the insect population is known, Pennick said. For example, all proposals for spring 1990 funding must be made in fall 1988, he said.

Each summer, the number of egg masses - groups of the moth's eggs - are estimated to determine the number of caterpillars the following spring, Pennick said.

"How are you going to know what it looks like for 1990 if you haven't seen the egg masses in the summer of 1989?" Pennick said.

This year in Centre County, about 2,000 to 3,000 egg masses per acre have been found, each containing about 800 to 1,000 eggs, he said.

"If 500 eggs hatch out of 1,000 egg masses, its 500,000 caterpillars," Pennick said.

Based on egg counts made from July to September, 7,400 acres were approved for spraying, with only 1,780 eligible due to the cutback, he said.

The area's last major outbreak was in 1981, when 75 percent of the county's forest land was defoliated, Pennick said. Areas around Bald Eagle, from Stormstown to Skytop, suffered an 80 percent loss of oak species -- one of the gypsy moth's favorite trees.

Gypsy moths were first introduced to the area in the 1970s, Pennick said, adding that major outbreaks generally occur 10 years apart.

Trees have a 15 percent mortality rate after an initial infestation, jumping to 50 percent after a second, he said.

Gypsy moths, not native to the United States, were introduced to the country in 1870 by a French scientist who wanted to mate them with silkworms and create new kinds of silk, Pennick said. Because the insects have no natural predators in the country, most states must rely on spraying since most of the insect's natural enemies must be imported and often do not survive, he added.