Pesticide spraying set for Rancho Cordova

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Pesticide spraying set for Rancho Cordova
By Paul Schnitt
Bee Staff Writer
(Published July 27, 2000)

Concerned about the threat to vineyards of a disease-spreading insect, the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors on Wednesday authorized pesticide spraying in areas of Rancho Cordova.

The chemical treatment will begin Saturday in landscaped areas of commercial properties adjacent to a large mobile home park on Sunrise Boulevard just north of Highway 50.

The mobile home park where a heavy population of glassy-winged sharpshooters was found July 6, probably will be sprayed starting Monday, according to Frank Carl, the county agricultural commissioner.

He said it probably will take two days to spray the more than 450 homesites in Mobile Country Club.

Residents of the park, restricted to those 55 years and older, will be notified at least 24 hours before the treatment begins, Carl said.

Supervisors praised Carl for moving prudently to advise residents of the chemical treatment program and satisfying their concerns (usually by convincing people that pesticides are safe which is illegal.).

"The fact that we don't have a roomful of people indicates the people were (satisfied) with the process," Supervisor Illa Collin said.

While some growers of wine grapes have complained that it took too long to schedule the spraying, Supervisor Roger Niello said planning for such a program in an urban setting must be done carefully.

"The quickest way to delay the process is to have a public uproar," Niello said, noting that not a single member of the public showed up to protest the spraying.

Sevin, a common backyard insecticide, will be applied in liquid form by hoses connected to tanker trucks. The treatment will be carried out by a pest control firm that Carl selected at a cost not to exceed $80,000.

Carl acknowledged that in addition to killing most of the sharpshooters, the spray also will kill a lot of beneficial bugs (what's a few good bugs and people to the profiteers?).

He disclosed that areas around the Sheraton Rancho Cordova hotel just south of Highway 50 also will be sprayed (yeah, why not kill off a few tourists). Inspectors turned up a sharpshooter infestation there last week. The pesticide will be applied to the hotel's parking lot and landscaped areas, including around the swimming pool, which will be covered by a tarp during the treatment.

Carl also reported that three sharpshooters were found in a trap in a nursery east of Galt. The nursery operators did their own spraying while Carl's office sent out inspection crews to survey nearby nurseries and vineyards.

"We haven't found anything," he said Wednesday afternoon.

The glassy-winged sharpshooter can carry a deadly disease to grapevines and other crops such as almonds and alfalfa. The xylellabacteria chokes off water and nutrients the plants soak up from the ground.

The pest has wiped out an estimated 25 percent of the wine-growing region in the Temecula Valley of Riverside County the last two years.

Over the past decade the sharpshooter, a native of the southeastern United States, has spread throughout Southern California as far north as Fresno County, although there are no other reports of the bacteria appearing in vineyards in other regions infested by the pest.

With the discovery of the pest in Rancho Cordova, Sacramento became the first Northern California county to be designated by the state as infested.

While the infestation is about 10 miles from the nearest vineyards, supervisors are concerned about the sharpshooter spreading and possibly infecting grapevines.

"The consequences for the county could be enormous," Collin said.

Two years ago, wine grapes became the county's most valuable farm commodity, surpassing dairy products. This year, Carl estimates that wine grapes will return about $100 million to growers in Sacramento County.

In addition to winning approval for the spraying, Carl was given the nod to hire three full-time staffers because of the infestation. He had hired 12 temporary workers and been given authorization to hire as many as 25 more to survey vineyards and nurseries.

Original Article:  http://www.sacbee.com/news/news/local09_20000727.html

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