glassy-winged sharpshooter

Sonoma, Napa counties struggling to ID infested grapevine plants sold at Costco

Phil Barber, PRESS DEMOCRAT

Lea el artículo en español aquí.

Three weeks after Costco warehouses across California discovered they’d received staked grapevines from a San Joaquin Valley nursery that had failed to note the plants were exposed to the glassy-winged sharpshooter — an insect with the potential to decimate local wine industries — agricultural officials in Napa and Sonoma counties have redoubled efforts to locate and dispose of the vines.

The Napa Costco, for example, had previously confirmed receiving 220 staked grapevines from Burchell Nursery based in Fowler in Fresno County between April 21 and May 21. Since the discovery of possible exposure to the glassy-winged sharpshooter, the Napa County Agricultural Commissioner’s Office had recovered 101 of those vines as of Tuesday, June 9.

“That’s pretty good, but it’s not enough,” Tracy Cleveland, the county’s agricultural commissioner, told The Press Democrat. “We’re looking for 100%.”

The numbers look better in Sonoma County, where ag staff has tracked down all but about 100 of the 634 plants Burchell shipped to Costco outlets in Santa Rosa and Rohnert Park in that same timeframe.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2026/06/10/sonoma-napa-counties-struggling-to-id-infested-grapevine-plants-sold-at-costco/

Agriculture/Food System, , ,

Glassy-winged sharpshooter found on grapevine plants sold at Costco

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/

Agriculture/Food System, , ,

Vineyard pest eggs found in Sonoma, Napa Counties

Bill Swindell, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Inspectors in Sonoma and Napa counties destroyed plants last week that contained egg masses of the glassy-winged sharpshooter, an insect that spreads a disease that can kill grapevines.
Napa inspectors on March 7 discovered the eggs on some plants that were transported to the Walmart Supercenter in American Canyon, said Napa County Agricultural Commissioner Greg Clark.The shipment came from an Orange County supplier, Nakase Brothers Wholesale Nurseries of Lake Forest, Clark said.
Inspectors destroyed eight plants where the egg masses were found. No other problems were found on the remaining plants.
The next day, Sonoma County inspectors destroyed plants that also were found to have egg masses. They also were on the shipment from Nakase Brothers, according to Clark.

 Local agricultural officials have been on guard for years against the glassy-winged sharpshooter because it can transmit Pierce’s disease into a grapevine. Besides the inspection programs, they also have carried out public education efforts.

Read more at: Sonoma, Napa plants found to contain sharp-shooter eggs

Agriculture/Food System, Wildlife, ,

Destructive insects found in Marin, Sonoma Counties

Alexander Nguyen, CA PATCH
A destructive insect that sucks the fluids out of plants and can wreak horticultural havoc in agricultural areas recently was found in Marin and Sonoma counties during routine inspections of nursery shipments from Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties.
glassy winged sharpshooterAgricultural Commissioners Stacy Carlsen (Marin County) and Tony Linegar (Sonoma County) said inspectors captured the nymph glassy-winged sharpshooters on September 29 in Marin and September 30 in Sonoma while checking incoming plant shipments. A viable egg mass was also found on the Sonoma County shipment.
This invasive pest damages a wide variety of plants and spreads lethal diseases to crops such as almonds and grapes for which there are no known cures. Glassy-winged sharpshooters are known to feed on more than 300 varieties of plants, including widely used landscape plants, fruits and vegetables.
“Protecting agriculture and the environment from this serious pest is one of our top priorities,” Carlsen said. “If the glassy-winged sharpshooter were to get established in the North Bay, the potential damage to the wine grape industry, landscape plants and the environment is significant.”
An adult glassy-winged sharpshooter can drain 200 to 300 times its bodyweight in water every day, the equivalent of a 150-pound adult drinking about 4,300 gallons of water per day. A tree heavily infested with the insect can lose up to 10 to 15 gallons of life-giving fluids per day, requiring a significant increase in irrigation to keep plants healthy.
Read more at: Destructive Insects Found in Marin, Sonoma Counties | Mill Valley, CA Patch

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