Though the disease is fatal to a vine, it can take about four years for a vine to die, Hashim said. Currently, the state's efforts include nursery stock inspections. Nursery stock includes ornamental plants, shrubs and trees, like those sold at hardware stores for household use. Nursery shipments are reaching their peak right about now, Van Rein said. Ornamental nursery products account for about 5 percent of agricultural production in Kern County but are a large part of production in urban counties, such as San Diego, Orange and Los Angeles.
Inspections involve looking for adult sharpshooters and turning over leaves to find egg masses.
There were no new infestations in Northern California areas where sharpshooters were detected last year, Van Rein said. One of the most effective tools against the sharpshooter has been systemic pesticides, Van Rein said. These are pesticides that are fed to the plant through irrigation water and taken up through the roots. This treatment is designed to affect only glassy-winged sharpshooters, since they feed on the water vessels of a plant and not the food vessels. The systemic pesticides also proved effective in field trials, said Beth Grafton-Cardwell, a plant pathologist with the UC Kearney Agricultural Center in Parlier.