USDA scientists released 3,000 sterile light brown apple moths yesterday in a Carneros vineyard, according to an article in the Sonoma Index-Tribune. The scientists hope that flooding the environment with sterile moths will prevent females from mating with normal moths and producing offspring.
Reporter Emily Charrier-Botts wrote that UC Davis entomologist James Carey does not expect the program to be successful. He said releasing sterile insects has eradicated only one pest in history - the screw-worm fly. (Screw-worm fly maggots, a livestock pest, feed on living mammal flesh after a female fly lays eggs on a superficial wound, according to CDFA.)The USDA scientist overseeing the light brown apple moth program, entomologist Gregg Simmons, said the pilot project will help officials determine whether sterile moths could be used to combat infestations across the state.
"The goal is to drive insects to manageable levels. As part of the integrated pest management strategy ... eradication may be achieved," Simmons was quoted.
Light brown apple moth larva.
Farmers growing vegetables in Southern California and Arizona deserts had to contend with a new pest this fall. The Bagrada bug - a native of East and Southern Africa, Egypt, Zaire and Senegal - made its first appearance in the area, posing especially significant problems to organic farmers, according to an article in Capital Press.
Bagrada bugs were introduced to California last year in Los Angeles and San Diego counties. This past August, farmers began seeing the pest in broccoli, cauliflower, and other cole crops in the Imperial and Coachella valleys, and in southwestern Arizona.“Bagrada bugs were everywhere; it’s not like we’ve had to look for them,” the story quoted John Palumbo, an extension specialist at the University of Arizona Yuma Agricultural Center.
According to UC Riverside’s Center for Invasive Species Research, adult Bagrada bugs are 5 to 7 millimeters long with black, shield-shaped bodies and distinctive white and orange markings. The adult female is larger than the male.
Bagrada bugs suck sap from young leaves causing small white patches on leaf edges. The damage can prevent the plant from producing edible vegetable heads or can cause double heads that are too small for market. Severe Bagrada feeding can kill the plant.
Capital Press reporter Cary Blake spoke to UC Cooperative Extension Imperial County farm advisor Eric Natwick about the Bagrada bug situation for California desert farmers. Natwick said he saw major Bagrada bug damage in an organically grown red cabbage field in Holtville in late October.
“I’d estimate about 30 percent of the early September-planted transplants developed single heads,” Natwick was quoted. “The other plants (about 70 percent) had no head or two smaller, unmarketable heads.”
Natwick found higher single-head numbers in mid-to-late September-planted cabbage. The field contained adults, nymphs, and eggs.
Female and male Bagrada bugs. (Photo: LA Ag Commissioner's office)
UC Agriculture and Natural Resources made several appearances in the media yesterday. Separate news outlets
- Reported more sightings of European grapevine moth in wine country
- Charted expanding acreage of olives for oil
- Offered blustery vitriol about changes being implemented by ANR to deal with the economic downturn
According to yesterday's Weekly Calistogan, the number of adult European grapevine moths found in Napa County has risen to eight since they were first spotted last month. Agricultural officials have found 29 larval specimens as well.
Reporter Mike Treleven got a description of the pest from UC Cooperative Extension integrated pest management advisor Lucia Varela. She said the moth is about a quarter-inch long and the female is always slightly larger than the male. European grapevine moths' markings are brown, tannish and black; they prefer temperatures in the mid-80s and nighttime temperatures in the low 50s. More details on the moth from the UC IPM program.
Capital Press devoted column-inches to a oil-olive planting boom, which it said is fueled by skyrocketing demand for olive oil among health-conscious consumers, the ability to use lower-cost mechanical harvesting methods and the fact that the trees require less water than other crops.
One of reporter Tim Hearden's expert sources was UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor Bill Kreuger. Even as the table olive industry has struggled, Kreuger said, the acreage of the fruit grown for oil has increased dramatically.
The Berkeley Daily Planet published a reader's commentary by Gray Brechin criticizing ANR vice president Dan Dooley's decision to close the University’s Center for Water Resources and find a new home for the Water Resources Archives in order to save money.
The essay, titled "Vivisecting the University of California," opens with a distasteful analogy involving a cancer patient's dabbing at an open wound when speaking amiably about other topics.
"I wondered how he could so blithely ignore what was obvious to everyone else. I wonder the same about the UC administrators and regents," Brechin wrote.
I'll guess writer Ron Sullivan's word choice reveals him as a "hipster," a moniker attached to people who, according to Wikipedia, are young, recently-settled urban adults and older teenagers with interests in non-mainstream fashion and culture, particularly alternative music, independent rock, independent film and magazines.
Here's some of Sullivan's hipster terminology and my own translations:
On the other tentacle - on the other hand
Gimcrack - gimmick
Wonks - experts
Gooses - disrupts
The article suggests Sullivan attended one of UC Berkeley plant pathologist Matteo Garbelleto's SOD workshops. Sullivan explains two SOD treatments - injecting Agri-fos into tree cambium and mixing finely-ground dry commercial compost into soil around plants (like California bay laurel) that harbor the organism that causes SOD.
Sullivan concludes that Garbelotto’s hands-on demo is the easiest way to learn these techniques and he provides the particulars for upcoming workshops:
1–3 p.m. Nov. 4, and 1-3 p.m. Dec. 9 at UC Berkeley. For more details, click here.
Symptoms of sudden oak death syndrome include weeping bark and frass from bark beetles.
San Joaquin Valley farmers are casting a weary eye up north hoping the new pest doesn't make its way into their vast acreage of wine, table and raisin grapes, according to a story in yesterday's Fresno Bee.
UC Cooperative Extension specialist in biological control, Kent Daane, told the Fresno Bee that experts don't know how the insect immigrated, but he suspects international airline travel.
Daane said that European grapevine moth doesn't invoke the dread in farmers of invasive pests known to transmit plant diseases, but its establishment in California could throw a monkey wrench in carefully nuanced biological control regimes and increase the cost of vineyard pest control.
"The wine industry here does not need another pest to deal with," Napa County agricultural commissioner was quoted in the Napa Valley Register last week.
The moth larvae feed on grape bunches, ruining berries and contributing to mold. It is also a pest of olives, blackberries, cherries, nectarines, persimmons and pomegranates.
Fresno Bee reporter Bob Rodriguez spoke to UCCE viticulture advisor for Napa County Monica Cooper for yesterday's story.
"We started an investigation as more growers started reporting more of it," Cooper was quoted.
CDFA, USDA and agricultural commissioners in Napa and neighboring counties are setting out traps to determine the extent of the pest's infestation.
European grapevine moth (CDFA photo).
