Sacramento Costcos receive more plants with glassy-winged sharpshooter
More plants with an invasive pest, the glassy-winged sharpshooter, arrived at Costcos in Sacramento County last week, marking the second time in roughly two months that the bulk grocery store chain received infected plants.
The Sacramento County Agricultural Commissioner’s Office told The Sacramento Bee that shipments of desert willows, a type of ornamental plant, had viable egg masses on their leaves. It is possible that some of the plants got sold, the county office said. The plants were shipped from a nursery in Tyler, Texas.
These plant shipments were expected at more than 85 Costco locations throughout the state, according to an email shared between county agricultural offices obtained by The Bee.
The glassy-winged sharpshooter can spread Pierce’s Disease, which kills grapevines, and poses significant risks for both California’s wine and table grapes. The pest does not pose a threat to humans or animals.
With wine consumption at historic lows, the wine industry is already facing significant challenges. Some grape growers and winemakers are shutting their doors because they can’t afford to be in the business anymore. The leaf-hopping insect destroyed more than 1,000 acres of grapevines in Northern California from 1994 to 2008, causing $30 million in damage, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture.
Asked how the plants made it to Costco with pests and out on the sales floor, Sacramento County Agricultural Commissioner Chris Flores said the shipments did not have inspection notices upon their arrival at the stores. Agriculture border stations that are spread throughout California are first-line pest defense, and they are supposed to stop vehicles with commodities and hand them inspection notices to be given to retailers once they arrive at their destinations.
It is possible to get into California without being stopped for inspection. Some of the stations have staffing issues, Flores said, and there are border entries without stations. There are 16 border facilities located on the major highways entering the state.
For the Texas shipment, the plants were sent with a certificate that said they had been preventatively treated for glassy-winged sharpshooter, the Sacramento County Agricultural Office said.
Flores’ team destroyed 209 of 215 infested plants at various Costcos, she said, and she pulled staff out of other programs to help. Right now, Flores said, her office does not know where the remaining six plants are. She encouraged anyone who purchased a desert willow to call her office.
“The counties are being very diligent in trapping and trying to alert our nurseries to give us calls,” Flores said. “... We do not want this stuff getting out.”
The California Department of Food and Agriculture sent an email on Saturday scheduling a virtual briefing for grape and wine professionals for Monday afternoon “to share new information related to (glassy-winged sharpshooter) and nursery plant shipments,” according to a copy of an email obtained by The Bee.
The state agency said in the email that it had planned to continue with email updates “unless new developments warranted a live briefing and Q&A.” The department did not respond to requests for comment.
The infected plants discovered in May were from Burchell Nursery, Inc., located in Fresno County, officials said. The invasive pest was recently found on grapevines sold at Costco stores in Sacramento County and dozens of other counties throughout the state.
In a June 16 letter, U.S. Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff, D-Calif. and 12 House members urged U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins to provide $32.2 million in emergency funding to the state to combat the threat of the glassy-winged sharpshooter.
The funds would come from the Commodity Credit Corporation, a funding initiative through the federal agency, and would go toward tracing, surveying and trapping response programs for the next three years.
The wine and grape industries are billion-dollar enterprises in California. The state produces 99% of all table grapes and around 80% of all wine in the U.S., according to industry groups. If unaddressed, the lawmakers said that the glassy-winged sharpshooter could cost the state $104 million annually.
If you purchased a desert willow recently, you can call the Sacramento County Agricultural Commission at 916-875-6603.
