{"id":4843,"date":"2024-04-19T22:26:33","date_gmt":"2024-04-19T22:26:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/?p=4843"},"modified":"2024-04-28T17:08:16","modified_gmt":"2024-04-28T17:08:16","slug":"scrape-for-the-grape-eliminates-a-million-spotted-lanternflies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/2024\/04\/19\/scrape-for-the-grape-eliminates-a-million-spotted-lanternflies\/","title":{"rendered":"Citizen Scientists ‘Scrape for the Grape’ in Virginia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Citizen Science to the Rescue!\"\"
\n<\/strong>Scrape for the Grape Eliminates Millions of Spotted Lanternflies in Virginia<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Saturday, April 6, 2024, nearly 400 Loudoun County, VA, residents rose up in defense of their beloved vineyards and wineries to \u201cScrape for the Grape.\u201d<\/strong><\/a> This innovative and fun citizen science initiative unleashed volunteers armed with credit-card-sized Scrape for the Grape scrapers to seek and destroy Spotted Lanternfly egg masses in local vineyards and public spaces and tag Trees of Heaven for removal. Or as they put it, \u201cto help keep Loudoun\u2019s vineyards spotted-less.\u201d<\/p>\n

Created by Visit Loudoun in partnership with the Loudoun Invasive Removal Alliance (LIRA), Loudoun County Virginia Cooperative Extension and the Loudoun Wineries & Winegrowers Association, Scrape for the Grape gathered volunteers at 14 locations around the area. There, event organizers educated teams of volunteers on the threat SLF poses to the local wine and greater agritourism industries, showed them how to identify both SLF egg masses and Tree of Heaven, its preferred and protective host. \u201cSpotted lanternfly feeding from Tree of Heaven\u2019s sap makes it unpalatable to predators, so no natural enemies will feed on it,\u201d said Beth Sastre, commercial horticulturist with Virginia Cooperative Extension Loudoun.<\/p>\n

Organizers equipped participants with branded scrapers (though some volunteers opted for their own ice scrapers) and bandanas, then sent them on the hunt.<\/p>\n

Over the course of the four-hour event, \u201cthe volunteers removed 16,798 egg masses, most likely totaling around 590,000 individual eggs,\u201d said Andrew (Drew) Harner, Assistant Professor of Viticulture and Extension Specialist with Virginia Tech and Virginia Cooperative Extension. Following the bugs through their prolific reproductive lifecycle, it\u2019s estimated that those eggs would\u2019ve yielded 1 million or more adult SLF.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoupled with the volunteers\u2019 identification of 147 Tree of Heaven trees that\u2019ll also be removed, these efforts are a tremendous service to the local winegrape community,\u201d Drew added.<\/p>\n

To show appreciation for their efforts, 14 wineries as well as Bear Chase Brewery offered special discounts, complimentary pours and other incentives for volunteers who came in with their branded Scrape for the Grape bandanas. Local bakery Mom\u2019s Apple Pie also provided a free cookie to participating children.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can’t think\u00a0of a more impactful awareness event than what Scrape for the Grape accomplished this weekend,\u201d President of LIRA Mike Littman said. \u201cIt was a great example of (the community) coming together for the greater good while educating residents on the growing threat of invasives to our economy, health\u00a0and safety, and environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was amazed at the community outpouring that came to help save our vineyards from spotted lanternflies,\u201d Bluemont Vineyard Winemaker Scott Spelbring said. \u201cThough it was cloudy and cold, our volunteers were complete rockstars. Seeing the sea of volunteers in red bandanas across the vineyards was heartwarming.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy daughter said it was like an easter egg hunt without the chocolate reward,\u201d said one volunteer. \u201cBut she got her cookie from Mom’s so that counts.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year is the 40th anniversary of the Loudoun wine industry, known as DC\u2019s Wine Country\u00ae. Loudoun leads the state with more than 50 wineries and 850-plus acres under vine producing 2,300 tons of 25-plus varieties of grapes annually.<\/p>\n

Update: Inspired by the success of the first Scrape, a follow-up event was held on Sunday, April 14, 2024, at Bluemont Vineyard. Volunteers there removed an additional 17,622 egg masses. Assuming 35 eggs per mass, that translates to approximately 616,770 more eggs destroyed, effectively doubling the Scrape the Grape total to a whopping 2 million spotted lanternflies eliminated.<\/p>\n

This story was compiled from two press releases published by Visit Loudon, both viewable here.<\/a><\/strong> It also was informed by news stories like this one.<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Citizen Science to the Rescue! Scrape for the Grape Eliminates Millions of Spotted Lanternflies in Virginia On Saturday, April 6, 2024, nearly 400 Loudoun County, VA, residents rose up in defense of their beloved vineyards and wineries to \u201cScrape for the Grape.\u201d This innovative and fun citizen science initiative unleashed volunteers armed with credit-card-sized Scrape […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-industry-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4843"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4864,"href":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4843\/revisions\/4864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}