March 22, 1981

CONFIRMING widespread concern about another severe onslaught of gypsy moths, hundreds of area residents turned out recently at two public seminars to hear entomologists, foresters and conservationists discuss methods of controlling the destructive insect. Scores of people attended an all-day symposium last weekend at the State University of New York at Purchase, sponsored by the National Audubun Society, the Federated Conservationists of Westchester County, the Connecticut Audubon Society and the New York Downstate Audubon Council. Earlier this month, a standing-room-only crowd of 200 filled the Greenwich, Conn., Town Hall for a two-hour session sponsored by the town's Conservation Commission and the Greenwich Audubon Society. ''Lots of people are afraid of losing their trees and want to know what to do to save them,'' said Charles Upham, chairman of the Conservation Commission, ''while a lot of people are concerned about the dangers of pesticide use and what it will do to the environment. These people wanted to hear what was going to be done. Many are caught right in the middle. There's no magic solution.''

EVEN before he discovered supply-side theory, President Reagan liked to use broad brush strokes and bold colors to paint an idealized economic landscape. Therein, hardy capitalists, cheerful workers and an inherently fair free market produced inevitable prosperity, while enlightened local officials and private charities cared for the poor until they got their share of the economic pie. From time to time, filling in the details confounded Mr. Reagan, as when he proposed in 1976 that state governments take over $90 billion worth of social programs, but neglected to calculate where the money would come from. ''That's when he learned that in a campaign you can't start earmarking programs,'' a White House aide, Michael K. Deaver, recalled recently. A President, unlike a candidate, cannot gloss over painful details. That became clear in the last two weeks as Congressional critics, outraged constituent groups and mainstream economists have teamed up to point out what they regard as flaws in the President's economic recovery program.

''You have to know when you've had your hour, your place in the sun,'' Miss Stanwyck said on a springlike day in her 73d year. ''I pity an actor who doesn't understand that.'' Her hair is silver - but it has been silver for more than 30 years. When it turned prematurely gray, she refused to dye it, just as she refused to lie about her age. ''Everybody said, 'Oh, my God, no actress can have white hair. No one wants to make love to a grayhaired lady.' Everybody said, 'To be over 40 isn't possible.' To be old is death here. I think it's kind of silly. Be glad you're healthy. Be glad you can get out of bed on your own.'' Ironically, on the eve of being honored by the Film Society of Lincoln Center on April 13 for 35 years of achievement, she looks extraordinarily lovely, with porcelain skin and a figure that has not varied one pound or one inch for nearly 50 years. A golden horse with a flaming mane is pinned to her magenta jacket and its bridled vitality is echoed in her own chiseled features. She started the day, as she always does, by walking half a mile on the slanted treadmill that dominates her bedroom. An exercise bicycle is now relegated to the garage because it was ''too easy.'' The uphill treadmill is more satisfying work.

-------------------------------------------------------------------- MIKE EDWARDS is a Washington-based journalist who travels as much as six months a year. By MIKE EDWARDS It was no big deal, that request I made one morning in the dining room of the Grand Hotel Park in Dubrovnik. I just wanted an egg. As I sat down, the waiter brought juice, coffee, a roll and a tot of jam. Two hundred or so German tourists seated around me were breakfasting on this same spartan Continental fare. I was accustomed to a bit more substance. ''One egg, please, soft-boiled.'' The waiter shook his head. ''Egg is not on the menu for the group.'' ''But I am not with the group. I am alone.'' He regarded me with surprise, if not suspicion. ''Not with the group?'' His tone suggested there was no such thing as a nongroup traveler. Not in this hotel on Yugoslavia's Adriatic littoral, crammed with Germans on package tours. He vanished - never to return with an egg. I knew that once more I had been grouped.

Matt Doherty happily pulled the ''North Carolina'' sign off the locker-room door after the Tar Heels' 82-68 victory over Kansas State in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's West Regional basketball final today. ''I want something to remember from here,'' said Doherty, a freshman from East Meadow, L.I. In winning the 10th of their last 11 games and reaching the Final Four next weekend in Philadelphia, North Carolina showed too much strength, depth and versatility for the Wildcats. Everyone expected that Al Wood, James Worthy and Sam Perkins, the Tar Heels' inside trio, might be more than Kansas State could handle, even with Rolando Blackman. And they were, scoring 52 points among them and dominating as they did Thursday night when they helped to end Utah's 17-game winning streak at the Special Events Center here.