For each generation, a 3-week treatment window minimized application costs by combining the insecticide with preventative treatments for powdery mildew. This information was widely disseminated via conference calls with government agencies, a UC electronic newsletter, industry associations’ e-news blasts, and grower liaisons in Napa, Sonoma, Fresno and Mendocino counties. An analysis of the PUR datafrom 2011 and 2012 shows a high level of compliance for treatment timing among Napa County growers . Mating disruption. Mating disruption programs deploy synthetic – 7,9-dodecadienyl acetate — the main component of the female sex pheromone — in hand-applied dispensers . When applied as an area-wide control strategy in Palearctic regions, MD has provided sustained control of EGVM populations while decreasing reliance on insecticides and reducing conflict between agricultural and urban populations . Although MD does not completely inhibit EGVM mating, delayed mating reduces populations because older females produce fewer eggs than younger females . TWG scientists strongly supported the use of MD as a control tool , large pots plastic and by the second EGVM flight of 2010, Isomate EGVM pheromone dispensers became widely used .
After the MD and insecticide programs were implemented, trap catches and visual inspections revealed dramatic decreases in population size in Napa County . Beginning in 2012, all Napa County vineyards within the defined treatment areas received pheromone dispensers through federal, state and local funding programs. Because MD limits the reliability of sex pheromone–baited traps and makes it very difficult to detect residual populations, the EGVM program has avoided the use of MD in treatment areas as they transition to deregulation. Urban and residential treatment programs. CDFA personnel used multiple strategies to manage EGVM populations in noncommercial grapevines in urban and residential areas. The organic product B. thuringiensis was applied during the first and second generations if the crop was to be harvested; if not, flower and/or fruit clusters were removed in the spring or early summer . MD was also used in certain areas and select counties. Alternate host surveys Polyphagy by EGVM has been documented in the literature: Larvae may feed on up to 40 hosts in 27 plant families . However, larvae are rarely found on hosts other than Daphne gnidium and Vitis; exceptions seem to result from adaptations to local climate and flora or elevated pest pressure and presence of ripe fruit .
UC and USDA personnel used pheromonebaited traps and visual surveys to monitor a variety of plant species in Napa County that are reported to be EGVM hosts ; no EGVM life stages were found during these surveys, suggesting that these species currently pose little risk in California. In separate surveys of olive orchards, 10 eggs and 12 EGVM larvae were found, indicating that olive flowers were a minor host in Napa during the first EGVM generation, but olive fruit did not host the second or third generations. The main host of consequence in California continues to be cultivated grape, Vitis vinifera.To prevent the movement of EGVM on regulated articles grown inside quarantine areas, CDFA required businesses to sign compliance agreements that mandated specific activities prior to and during harvest, transport, processing and waste handling. Compliance agreements were also required for similar activities in raisins and regulated fruit other than grape, including olive, persimmon, pomegranate, most stone fruit and specific caneberries. Based on recommendations provided by the TWG, in 2012 the USDA revised the list of regulated articles to exempt olive fruit and Rubus spp., and limited the acreage of Prunus spp. affected. Management of winery waste The possibility that EGVM could survive in unfermented winery waste was addressed by requiring that waste be composted on site, transported to an approved compost facility or returned to the vineyard of origin, depending on where the fruit was sourced relative to the quarantine area and county.
Alternatively, if grapes were pressed to a minimum of 2 bars or 28 psi, then movement of waste was unrestricted within California. Investigations provided evidence that EGVM larvae could survive on unpressed green waste after destemming and determined that in general the processing equipment was likely a greater source of contamination than unfermented waste . Mature larvae may move from clusters to protected locations, emphasizing the need for thorough washing of all equipment used to harvest, transport and process infested loads of grapes. Outreach and educational program EGVM program leaders provided transparent, consistent, timely and coordinated communication to parties directly and indirectly affected by the EGVM program. USDA led international communications and jointly with CDFA coordinated statewide communication. County agricultural commissioners and UC advisors directed local communication and assisted in other efforts. The outreach program also collected relevant information from stakeholders to ensure the appropriateness of regulatory requirements and adapted the program to local conditions and concerns. This openness and flexibility to change fostered the development of trust, respect and cooperation among all parties. The proactive, local campaign to communicate, educate and collaborate with a diverse community became a hallmark of the EGVM program . Industry outreach and education. Many methods were used to communicate information to growers and winery personnel. Educational materials included two tri-fold brochures, a poster and training videos developed and distributed through UC Cooperative Extension. Mass marketing campaigns raised public awareness using postcards, door-hangers, magnets, billboards and campaign signs, public service announcements, and online and social media; cross-linked websites provided comprehensive and current information. The online UC IPM Pest Alert presented information on pest identification, biology and management. Grower liaison/outreach coordinators in Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino and Fresno counties played an important role in outreach and educational efforts. In each county, the EGVM grower liaison conducted targeted outreach and was a trusted, independent source of information for growers and winery personnel. Program information was communicated at meetings, seminars and field days, as well as through individual communications and a UC Cooperative Extension Napa County newsletter. Farmworkers — particularly important “first responders” capable of identifying potential threats during their daily work — were reached through Spanish language presentations, field days and outreach materials. Growers also shared information and related their experiences through peer networks that strengthened the formal educational program. Public outreach and education. An estimated 2.5 million acres of California farmland are adjacent or in close proximity to nonfarm residences . To address potential areas of urban-agricultural conflict, county agricultural commissioners supported by USDA, CDFA, UC and industry groups worked within established local networks of community leaders to develop a public outreach campaign. County supervisors and city council members, environmental, square planter pots community and commercial organizations, residents and tourists were the targets of the outreach efforts, which built trust between program and community leaders, growers and the public. Program update The conditions set forth by the TWG specified that in areas attempting to qualify for deregulation no moths must be captured during five consecutive generations, insecticide treatments must continue to target the first and second generation, MD may not be used during the final two generations that the area is under regulation and during these two generations, trap density must increase to 100 traps per square mile in all vineyards within 1,640 feet of previous detections.
Under California conditions, only the first and second are considered full generations because a proportion of the second generation enters diapause . Four counties were removed from regulation at the beginning of 2012, and by the end of 2012, five additional counties had been deregulated partially or in full. Napa County and portions of neighboring Sonoma and Solano counties remained under regulation in 2013, an area encompassing 686 square miles . Due to the historically large and widely distributed populations in Napa County, the TWG recommended a revised approach to deregulation: High-density traps deployed county-wide must be free from detections during four full flights before areas will be considered for deregulation . Any moth captured will trigger the delimitation and establishment of treatment areas within 1,640 feet of the detection. Consequently, trap density nearly tripled in Napa County in 2013 and the area under MD shrank from 23,000 to 2,800 acres in 2013 and approximately 1,907 acres in 2014. The remaining EGVM population in Napa County has been drastically reduced in size and distribution . By mid-August 2014, southern Sonoma County, the remainder of Solano County, and a portion of southern Napa County were removed from quarantine. The remainder of Napa County and a portion of northern Sonoma County, an area totaling 446 square miles, will continue to be regulated in 2015. Pheromone-baited trap surveys continue in other grape-growing areas of California and the United States as part of CDFA/USDA early detection programs. These surveys detected one moth in Sonoma County in 2014; this was not sufficient to trigger establishment of a new quarantine boundary. A model collaborative effort Development and implementation of a successful regulatory program in response to the detection of an invasive species in California agricultural systems requires a concerted and coordinated effort to address the pest while balancing the needs of the agricultural industry, trading partners and the general public. Regulatory, fiscal, environmental and biological aspects must be weighed to develop goals and determine program activities. The leaders of the California EGVM program were sensitive to these issues and gained credibility and trust by involving a diverse community for dialogue, responding to the needs of local communities, considering the impact on the environment, adopting new scientific information, investing in relationships and networks, and ensuring the appropriateness of regulatory requirements . Factors such as the insect’s limited host range, which allowed the program to focus on commercial vineyards; the use of management tools that minimized the impact to non-target organisms and are compatible with organic and backyard vineyards; and the long history of EGVM management in the Palearctic region also contributed to the successes of the program. The EGVM program leaders were recognized with the USDA Administrator’s Award in September 2012, acknowledging the program’s successful collaborative approach. The program has clear direction and well-defined goals, is grounded in biology, engages a diverse community and is responsive to the changing needs of participants. The participation of USDA, CDFA, agricultural commissioners, UC and other university scientists, growers, industry groups, community leaders and the general public resulted in a model effort that has reduced EGVM populations to a few areas of Napa and Sonoma counties.Variation in plant reproduction is central to processes from forest dynamics to farmer livelihoods. In perennial plants, masting marks one extreme end of the spectrum of population-level variation, and constant yield marks the opposite end. To date, much of the research on synchronous seed production has been focused on mast-seeding by wind-pollinated trees in temperate regions. It may be that mast-seeding is more common in wind-pollinated taxa; theory suggests selection for enhanced pollination efficiency through synchronous flowering with conspecifics is more likely in wind-pollinated species. In insect-pollinated species, synchronous flowering may saturate insect pollinators and high pollination efficiency at low flowering density may select for a more constant production of flowers . An alternative explanation of the over representation of wind-pollinated species in the synchronous seeding literature is that much of the masting work, and indeed the bulk of ecological and evolutionary research, has been done in temperate regions where wind is the predominant pollination syndrome among forest trees. Early reviews on whether pollination syndrome predicts the tendency for masting had difficulty gathering sufficient data on insect pollinated and animal-dispersed taxa. A recent meta-analysis included data with approximately equal numbers of animal- and wind pollinated species, but there were more time series per species for the wind- than animal-pollinated ones . To help to fill this gap, we make use of an analogous pattern of highly variable reproduction in perennial crop plants which, unlike mast-seeding forest trees, are biased toward insect-pollinated taxa and span tropical, Mediterranean and temperate climates . Alternate bearing in fruit and nut crops is an intermediate pattern of perennial reproductive variability in which a year of high reproduction is followed by a year of low reproduction. While media and trade reports have cited alternate bearing in discussions of national crop yield, literature on the extent and drivers of synchrony among alternate-bearing individuals is scarce. Despite evidence of similar plant-level mechanisms in masting and alternate bearing, ecological research on the synchrony of mast-seeding has largely ignored, or explicitly excluded, alternate-bearing crops .