Traps Set for Pest That Attacks Grapevines

Inspectors are setting traps through Monday in Central California vineyards for the crop-destroying glassy-winged sharpshooter.

A single one of the insects was found outside a Santa Ynez home Monday. Santa Barbara County agricultural inspectors are working within a quarter-mile radius of the find, setting traps to detect a larger infestation.

The pest infects grape plants with Pierce’s disease, an incurable bacteria.

The Santa Barbara County Vintners Assn. alerted its 87 members and vineyard managers. This year’s abundant grape harvest is about 60% complete. Thousands of tons remain to be picked through October.

County Agricultural Commissioner Bill Gillette said it’s too early to tell whether the find is an indication of a larger problem.

“Most likely this bug got here by hitchhiking on a plant. But we don’t know if it just arrived or has been here awhile and this is just the tip of the iceberg.”

Santa Barbara County already is considered infested because the glassy-winged sharpshooter was first discovered in Carpinteria and Goleta in 1993.

There was another discovery of the pest in northern Santa Barbara County in July. A few adult insects and egg masses were found in an Orcutt nursery on a shipment of rosebushes from Fillmore in neighboring Ventura County, authorities said. The bushes were buried in a landfill.

Vintners and vineyard managers have not reported any other discoveries of the bug. If the sharpshooter is found, an entire crop is deemed unsafe for wine-making.

An estimated 20,000 acres in Santa Barbara County are planted in wine grapes, mostly in the Santa Maria, Santa Ynez and Los Alamos valleys.

Since August 1999, the glassy-winged sharpshooter has spread throughout most of Southern California and parts of the Central Valley, mainly on shipments of plant materials.