Solano County

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 or fax (707)784-1330.

Press Release: Glassy-Winged Sharpshooters Found in Vacaville 6/9/04

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.