News Details

Ag Department progressing toward invasive pest eradication in Vacaville neighborhood

November 14, 2023

SOLANO COUNTY – The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) is renewing an emergency proclamation for eradication of the glassy-winged sharpshooter in Vacaville.  Solano County Agricultural Biologists identified the glassy-winged sharpshooter infestation in the Browns Valley neighborhood during a routine invasive pest survey in October 2021.  Since then, the Solano County Agriculture Department has made progress toward eliminating the pest but requires more time to achieve complete eradication.  

“Browns Valley is ideal habitat for the glassy-winged sharpshooter” says Ed King, Solano County Agricultural Commissioner.  “There are hundreds of crepe myrtle, citrus trees and other common landscaping plants sharpshooters like, making eradication very challenging.  Area residents have been very cooperative allowing us to place detection traps in their trees and make targeted insecticide treatments to host plants.”  

Agricultural Biologists have found 138 adult sharpshooters and over 500 egg masses in Browns Valley.  The infestation remains confined to the originally defined quarantine boundary which encompasses 3,500 acres around Browns Valley. CDFA and the County Agriculture Department will be hosting a public meeting on December 6th to provide an update on the eradication project.  To register for the meeting please visit https://www.SolanoCounty.com/Ag.   

Glassy-winged sharpshooters are invasive pests of special concern because they vector the bacterium Xylella fastidiosa, which causes the deadly Pierce’s disease in grapevines.  Because there is no known cure for Pierce’s disease, glassy-winged sharpshooters present an imminent danger to Solano vineyards and California’s grape growing regions.  A previous Vacaville glassy-winged sharpshooter infestation was successfully eradicated in 2007.  

For more information on the Solano County Ag Department, visit https://www.SolanoCounty.com/Ag or call (707) 784-1310.