Thank you for visiting the Solano County portion of www.bugspot.org.
For more specific information or to ask questions about the insect or
Solano County's programs, please call the Solano County Agricultural
Commissioner at (707) 784-1310.
Solano County's
Action Plan includes five specific parts:
Exclusion
Detection
Survey
Rapid Response
Education and Outreach
For more information, you can also click down to:
Why is the Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter a threat?
Want to help?
Exclusion
Our #1 priority is prevention, or keeping the Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter
out of our County. In order to do so, Solano County has developed
a strict inspection program. Our team inspects all incoming plant
shipments from infested counties which have the potential for hosting
the Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter in the form of eggs and/or insects.
Please support this program by shopping at local garden stores, nurseries
and landscapers that sell only inspected plants. Look for a Certificate
of Compliance with the Sharpshooter Spotter seal, signed by Solano
County Agricultural Commissioner Susan Cohen, at your local retailer
that ensures plants have been inspected.
Detection
Early detection is our 2nd priority. The Agricultural Commissioner's
team has placed over 700 sticky yellow cardboard traps in both residential
areas and on the borders of agricultural land. These traps are checked
regularly for Glassy-Winged Sharpshooters and other pests. No Sharpshooters
have been found up to this point in these traps. If you are interested
in having traps placed on your property, please call the above number
or 1-866-BUG-SPOT.
Survey
Members of the inspection team routinely do visual inspections of
residential, commercial and agricultural land. Inspectors will survey
100% of newly landscaped areas. An inspector may come to inspect your
property. We encourage you to allow the inspector to check your yard
for Glassy-Winged Sharpshooters. Inspectors are also happy to assist
you with any detection questions or direct you to others who may assist
you with gardening and insect questions.
If you are not home, the current workplan allows the inspector to
take a look around your front yard for the pest. The inspector will
then leave a flyer on your doorstep to let you know he or she was
there.
You can also help by doing your own survey! Take a walk around your
yard or neighborhood park, and keep your eyes open for the insect
or its egg masses. The Glassy-Winged
Sharpshooter typically lays its eggs on the underside of leaves, but
adult insects can be anywhere on a plant
or tree. If you find an insect that you think might be a Glassy-Winged
Sharpshooter, a suspicious egg mass or
evidence of white stains that may be sharpshooter
rain , try to collect the evidence in a plastic bag, film canister,
jar, or food container so we can make the proper identification. Then
call us at 1-866-BUG-SPOT.
We'll try to determine if the insect is a Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter.
If we think it is, you can drop the specimen off at the Solano County
Agricultural Commissioner's office at 501 Texas Street, Fairfield,
or if you like, we'll come by and pick it up.
What happens if you or an inspector find a Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter
on your property?
Rapid Response
In the event that Glassy-Winged Sharpshooters are found here in Solano
County, the Agricultural Commissioner's office will act quickly to
remove the infestation. Depending on the size and location of the
infestation, a number of different actions can be taken, from mechanical
(removing the plant material or even vacuuming the leaves) to chemical
(localized application of approved pesticide treatments, with all
safety precautions followed.)
Education and Outreach
If the Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter were to establish itself here in
Solano County, we would ALL feel the consequences. Our action plan
includes an education and outreach program to help all stakeholders
- that is, everyone who lives, visits, or works here - understand
why this is such an important issue. In fact, you're reading part
of that program right now! We also have brochures, posters, a video,
a slide show, educational materials, and a PowerPoint presentation
in Spanish and English, available for use by clubs, schools, and organizations.
Call 1-866-BUG-SPOT
for more information.
For more information about the ecological and economic impacts of
the Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter, read on.
Why is the Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter a Threat to Solano County
Ecology and Economy?
How the insect hurts the ecology around us
The Glassy-Winged
Sharpshooter is leafhopper insect that has a stylus - like a little
drill - that bores through wood. With this unique apparatus, the insect
can transmit lethal diseases into the wood portion of plants and trees.
With this stylus, it also sucks life-giving water out of all the plants
it feeds on. Each adult Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter
sucks out 200 to 300 times its body weight in water every day. This
is the equivalent of an adult human drinking 4,300 gallons of water
per day! This loss of water is even hurting our oak trees, which are
currently trying to fight off other diseases.
The Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter is related to the Blue-Green Sharpshooter,
which feeds only on tips of plants that can be pruned away. Unlike
its smaller relative, the Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter can fly up to
one-half mile and can damage many trees, crops and plants because
of its ability to transmit diseases into woody parts of plants, trees
and crops that cannot be pruned away. Please see the list of plants
that serve as a host to the Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter.
How the insect could hurt our economy
Not only can the
Glassy-winged Sharpshooter wipe out table, wine and raisin grapes,
it also spreads a lethal disease that affects almonds, alfalfa and
many other crops. The damage to these crops would not just affect
the field workers and farmers who grow them.
Many businesses that support the Napa Valley wine industry are located
within Solano County. They include the producers of plastic fermentation
barrels and cork; these industries provide Solano County residents
with many jobs. Also many laborers that work in the Napa Valley live
in Solano County. These jobs would disappear as a result of a Glassy-Winged
Sharpshooter infestation. Homeowners would also be affected by an
infestation because the Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter reduces the vibrancy
and vitality of their gardens and yards.
Want to help?
It is easy to
get involved. If you have time to put up a poster, hand out some pamphlets,
talk to a local business, school, youth group, neighbor or community
organization, you can help keep our Counties beautiful! Please call
us at 1-866-BUG-SPOT
to volunteer. If you belong to a club or organization, we're happy
to give a video, PowerPoint, or slide presentation at one of your
meetings - please contact us. If you are a teacher or camp director,
please see the educational materials
section of this website for curriculum you can use in the classroom.