Word: phylloxeras
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Grape growers in Northern California have not one but two of these hungry bugs to contend with. About 30,000 acres in Napa and Sonoma counties, site of the state's most prestigious vineyards, will eventually have to be replanted because of infestation by minute root lice called phylloxera. Now many of those same vineyards, as well as others in Lake and Mendocino counties, are battling even more dangerous pests: tiny insects called "sharpshooters," which spread a bacterium that causes Pierce's disease...
...Phylloxera can be stymied by regrafting grape buds onto resistant varieties of rootstock. No such defense is available against PD. The sharpshooter aphids attack the moisture-carrying vessels of vines and can kill them off in a year. Particularly vulnerable are vineyards near lakes and rivers, where the bug lives, since spraying with pesticides is banned because of the danger to fish and water. In case of a sharpshooter onslaught, says viticulturist Jim Wolpert of the University of California at Davis, a grower's only recourse is to "yank the vines and start over...
...Napa and Sonoma counties, heartland of California's $730 million-a-year wine industry, prospects are promising for a bumper harvest this fall. Beneath the deceptively lush surface of the peaceful vineyards, however, an expensive disaster looms. Billions of microscopic parasites called phylloxeras are munching away at the roots of the grape-bearing stalks. While no threat to human health, within a decade the tiny insects could eat their way through 50,000 acres of the nation's finest vineyards. Estimates of the total damage, including the cost of replanting with Phylloxera-resistant stalks, range from $500 million to more...
...University of California has set up a Phylloxera Task Force, but no chemical treatment has proved effective against this new biotype, and experts cannot rule out further mutations. In fact, another strain of the louse has been found in central California and as far south as Santa Barbara. For farmers the safest solution is to rip out their AXR 1 and replant with one of a dozen or so other rootstalks that appear to be more resistant to the mutations, at least so far. After replanting, it takes three years for a vine to produce mature, harvestable grapes...
...retail price of a standard (750- ml) bottle of wine. Pessimists in the industry predict that the increase could reduce wine consumption by 12% and lead to the loss of 7,000 jobs. The tax hike comes at a time when many growers are also worried about phylloxera, a mite-size plant louse that is gnawing away at vines, primarily in Napa and Sonoma counties. An estimated 250 acres have been affected so far, and replanting with new phylloxera-resistant vines may cost upwards of $250 million in Napa Valley alone...