The wings and tail of a glassy-winged sharpshooter (GWS). The GWS feeds on the xylem fluid of a large number of plants. This sharpshooter builds up large populations on a diverse array of host plants and is an aggressive flyer, traveling greater distances than native sharpshooters. (California Department of Food and Agriculture via Bay City News)

MENDOCINO CO., 9/26/2026  — On May 4, 2021, a team of five people spent one day in a vineyard at the Hopland Research and Extension Center, pricking grapevines with a needle. Each vine got two droplets of liquid. Most of those droplets carried the bacteria that cause Pierce’s disease.

Of the 477 vines, 348 were inoculated on purpose. Half got a strain isolated in Hopland. The other half got a strain from Bakersfield, about 310 miles away. The remaining 129 got a mock inoculation, as controls.

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