Was only a matter of time until it made it here, but glass-winged sharpshooters were found on grapevines being sold at numerous Costcos around the Bay Area, most notable those in Sonoma and Napa counties. GWSS spreads Pierce’s disease much more effectively than our native vectors, so we’re looking at another major blow to the wine industry if it establishes here.
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If I had to bet on it, I would bet on the glass-winged sharpshooters.
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Ah..Welcome to our world of very lousy choices of PD resistant grapes. Only to be doubly whacked that though you will find a few; availability is nigh on impossible.
I did find some Valiant grapes that are more tolerant of PD.
On the sunnyside; seems like their are more wine grapes bred for PD resistance.
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I’ve not seen much from the Walker series commercially yet. If anyone has, please post.
As many have seen, I am growing 7 Errante Noir vines…..I also have a few low to no resistance tablegrapes and have seen numerous sharp shooters so I know its a matter of time before I lose those vines.
Of course you can find other resistant varieties in the wine section of stores already like Blanc Dubois, Norton Cynthia, Black Spanish, etc.
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@GrapeNut
You’re probably aware that it is illegal in CA to ship grape plants or any other GWSS host plant without USDA clearance. Your news does not bode well for Costco’s supplier nor the inspectors at the supplier’s site(s).
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Supplier is Burchell Nursery. Feel bad for them but hope they clean up their act.
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I read a very good article about this in a CRFG group email. I was disappointed to see that Burchell was the grower shipper of the infected grapes. I’m going to be checking my vines very closely. Are there GWSS traps available?
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I have a US-wide nursery stock certificate with GWSS clearance. The county inspectors have placed 3 yellow sticky traps strategically on our property and inspect them every two weeks. If they find anything suspicious they place it in a specimen bottle and send it to a lab. If they do identify one they send out vector control in the area looking for a source.
Looks like they were here today …
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Bulk shipments are not authorized without a county Ag inspection.
I know of several wineries with the Walker varieties planted in “traditionally” high PD areas near riparian forest where the native vector lives. A few ferment and bottle them separately, but I am guessing most don’t publicly say they are using them, since secondary varieties do not need to be disclosed on labels if the wine is at least 75% single varietal.
I think the problem was that they shipped without notifying the county.
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Wow. In that case they could face serious penalties.
Santa Clara CRFG posted an article that was reposted on the Redwood Empire CRFG email.
From what I can see it appears that the article is from “Updated on: May 26, 2026 / 4:48 PM PDT / CBS San Francisco”
The article does say that the shipper did not notify the county.
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What other major blows to the industry have there been?
Mostly low prices due to reduced demand for wine. A lot of vineyards have been pulled out in California in the last few years.
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As @SethDoty said, one thing is lower demand for alcohol in general, not just wine. The premium market (most of Napa) was doing better since margins are higher than for budget wine, but that’s changed now too. Doesn’t help that things here are overpriced and much of the customer base is now too old to drink much.
Also overplanting, changing tastes in wine, grape viruses, lack of labor, reduced visitation, etc.
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I give the fruit tree section a passing glance every time I go to the Concord Costco and it all looks pretty unruly, grape vines in particular. I always assumed that was a proxy for more serious stuff going on
Funnily enough, I have some fond childhood memories of glassy winged sharpshooters. As a kid I found them to be especially amusing with how instead of flying away they always just scurry around to the opposite side of the stem or branch they’re on to hide, almost like a squirrel.
Ironic that a fun little bug that was an amusing diversion for me as a kid is the same thing that fills entire industries and regulatory bodies with fear and dread.
Now that I think about it, I could try and catch a few of them once they come out later in summer, @GrapeNut shall I mail you a few for kicks and giggles?
(For legal reasons this is a joke I’m not actually planning to commit mail order bioterrorism)
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I think this is often how people living in the native range of many invasive species feel. Growing up, I’d see kudzu in the wild in Japan and wonder why people in the South make such a big deal of it.
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For sure!
Fire ants are actually a very minor species down in Argentina apparently. Absolutely nightmare here in the South.
Well, those are good answers but I was thinking of something more on the scale of Prohibition. Of course we all know how that turned out.
PD is devastating. I can remember all to well how disgusted I was when I viewed a vine with the wrinkled sickly grapes. Pitiful, pitiful, pitiful. I didn’t even bother to taste them. Other vines looked better but I did not have much hope for them either.
Took part of the vine to the local ag extension office. Lab work confirmed that it was PD. Lady recommended the Saturn variety as bring resistant. I thought about it and then switched to muscadines. This was 8 or so years ago. Destroyed all except for one concord vine that now looks like it has had better days.
Frow what I have read the yellow sticky traps are used for monitoring rather than for eradication of the GWSS. Pesticides help but I can’t help but wonder about the future of the wine industry if worst comes to worst in Napa.
Suppose the good news is that the ag folks in Cal realize how serious this is. The damage from PD is too often underestimated. I know that I did.
Time will tell.