Handout and assumed applications stayed low until 1983/84, when the massive spread of the nun moth (Lymantria monacha) and associated pests (e.g. pine beauty moth Panolis flammea, European pine shoot moth Rhyacionia buoliana, bark beetle Scolytinae; ) in forests of the northern GDR forced the government to divert from the substitution plan. Unofficially, 260,000 ha of the 600,000 ha of infested stands were aviochemically treated with DDT/lindane formulations. After that, handout of DDT dropped back to the previous level of 1970 and quickly declined further, finally coming to an end shortly before Germany's Reunification a few years later ).