The glassy-winged sharpshooter is a large dark brown or black insect covered in ivory or yellowish spots.
photo COURTESY OF THE CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF
FOOD AND AGRICULTURE
With a name like sharpshooter, you can bet this is one bug you do not want to have around. So when inspectors found a glassy-winged sharpshooter nest during a routine plant inspection last week, local wine growers were immediately notified. According to the Sonoma County Agricultural Commission, a sharpshooter egg nest was uncovered in a shipment of plants from Riverside County. It was on a leaf of an escallonia plant, which is commonly used in landscaping.
The sharpshooter taps moisture from citrus and other plants but is particularly dreaded by grape growers because it spreads the lethal Pierce’s disease to vines.
Ever since February, when the first one was discovered in Napa, agriculture officials and wine country growers have been on the lookout for the bug (scientific name: Homalodisca coagulata). “We don’t want this exotic pest here,” said Nick Frey, president of the Sonoma County Winegrape Commission. “It is vital we continue the inspection programs. An ounce of prevention could be worth a tremendous amount to local wine growers.”
The state spends $40 million annually to stop the spread of the sharpshooter and fund research for disease treatments. Inspections last year found 47 sharpshooters on over 69,000 plants that were shipped from infested Southern California counties to non-infested North Bay counties.
After six years of an aggressive statewide containment effort, infestations of the glassy-winged sharpshooter have remained concentrated primarily in southern California, below the Tehachapi Mountains.
But Sonoma County Agricultural Commissioner Lisa Correia believes we cannot let down our guard. She encourages the public’s vigilance in helping protect local growers from the sharpshooter menace. “If people see suspicious looking insects they should call our office. We can help identify them,” she said.
The sharpshooter is a large insect compared to other leafhoppers. Adults are about half an inch long and are generally dark brown to black. The abdomen is whitish or yellow. The head is brown or black and is covered with numerous ivory or yellowish spots. Experts say these spots help identify the glassy-winged sharpshooter from a close relative, the smoke-tree sharpshooter, which is native to the desert region of southern California and slightly smaller in size.
Possible glassy-winged sharpshooter sightings should be immediately reported to www.bugspot.org or the toll-free number 866.284.7768.
