Concern across California about an invasive insect has sent officials in one county in the northern part of the state on a door-to-door mission to collect potentially infested grapevines sold at some Costco stores.
The insect, the glassy-winged sharpshooter, was found on vines sold at select Costco locations in Santa Clara County, which includes the cities of Palo Alto, San Jose and Santa Clara, between April 21 and May 19, the county’s Division of Agriculture said in a news release. The vines and other potentially infested plants were also sold in other parts of the state.
Glassy-winged sharpshooters are native to the American Southeast and northeast Mexico and are considered an invasive pest in California. They can spread Pierce’s disease, which is fatal to grapevines and can harm local vineyards, nurseries and farms, officials said, with the potential to devastate the state’s $73 billion wine industry. The insect can also damage citrus trees, landscape plants and other crops.
The first severe threat came in August 1999 in Riverside County, when over 300 acres of grapevines infested with the glassy-winged sharpshooter were infected with Pierce’s disease and ultimately destroyed.
More than 1,300 grapevine plants were sold to customers by Costco in Santa Clara County, the local agriculture agency said.
County workers began knocking on doors on Monday to distribute information and collection materials, including zip ties and plastic bags, to residents who had purchased the potentially infested plants, said Ericka Mora, Santa Clara County’s deputy agricultural commissioner. The state, working with Costco, provided the local authorities with customer information.
Residents are urged not to relocate, compost or dispose of the plants themselves because of the risk for the pest or the disease to spread, Ms. Mora said.
Scheduled pickups began on Wednesday, Ms. Mora said, though some plants were collected during Monday’s and Tuesday’s door-knocking operations. Initial efforts have been focused on the southern end of the county, particularly in Gilroy, Morgan Hill and San Martin, home to many wineries.
Ms. Mora said residents had been cooperative so far. She did not have an immediate count of how many of the vines had yet to be collected from buyers.
Santa Clara is one of at least 24 counties where the infestation is a concern, according to a news release from the California Department of Food and Agriculture.
The department also warned that desert willow trees sold at Costco stores across 15 counties between June 24 and July 3 might also be affected.
Burchell Nursery’s Fresno facility, which shipped the potentially infested grapevines in May, has been placed under stricter treatment, inspection and shipping protocols, the department said. The nursery did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
The California Department of Food and Agriculture said response and containment efforts included tracking down potentially affected grapevines and desert willows across the affected counties and neighboring at-risk counties; inspecting and safely disposing of the plants; and placing traps to monitor for the insect near stores and locations where purchased plants were taken.
The California Department of Food and Agriculture and Costco did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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