Phil Barber and Edward Booth, PRESS DEMOCRAT
Agricultural operations across Northern California had to mobilize over the past week after discovering a Fresno nursery had shipped hundreds, if not thousands of staked grapevines to Costco warehouses without noting the plants originated from an area that has been infested by the glassy-winged sharpshooter, an insect with the potential to devastate vineyards.
On Tuesday, May 26, multiple counties — including Sonoma and Napa — acknowledged that agricultural inspectors had found sharpshooters “in multiple life stages” at Costco outlets in their jurisdictions.
Those life stages include egg masses, juvenile nymphs and fully developed adult insects, according to Sonoma County Deputy Agricultural Commissioner Pierpaolo Aymar, who is in charge of quarantine programs at the agency.
The glassy-winged sharpshooter is known to spread Pierce’s disease, which can be a death sentence for grapevines. Because of that danger, any nursery shipping vines from an area of infestation is supposed to put a hold requirement on those deliveries, so the receiving party can notify local agricultural authorities and schedule inspections.
That didn’t happen in this case, Aymar told The Press Democrat.
Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2026/05/26/glassy-winged-sharpshooter-detected-on-grapevine-plants-sold-at-napa-costco/