A PARASITIC wasp is being released into California’s vineyards this month in
a bid to control a disease that is threatening to destroy the state’s wine
industry.
The wasps’ target will be a leafhopper called the glassy-winged sharpshooter
(Homalodisca coagulata). Since last year, the bug, a recent import into
California, has been spreading Pierce’s disease, a vascular infection of vines
caused by the bacterium Xyella fastidiosa.
Larry Bezark, an entomologist with the California Department of Food and
Agriculture, says officials hope to begin releasing the Mexican parasitic wasp
Gonatocerus triguttatus this month, as soon as the US Department of…
