{"id":5097,"date":"2024-10-28T03:46:38","date_gmt":"2024-10-28T03:46:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/?p=5097"},"modified":"2024-10-30T19:02:28","modified_gmt":"2024-10-30T19:02:28","slug":"destroyer-of-worlds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/2024\/10\/28\/destroyer-of-worlds\/","title":{"rendered":"‘A Destroyer of Worlds’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Thematically appropriate for the spooky season, four NGRA members and I spent the beginning of October up close and personal with one of the grape and wine industry\u2019s biggest bogeymen: the spotted lanternfly. The five us spent two packed days, October 2-3, 2024, on an SLF Field Trip in Berks County, PA, creeped out and itchy.<\/p>\n

None of the NGRA contingent, including Nick Dokoozlian (Gallo, based in CA), Randy Heinzen (Vineyard Professional Services, CA), John Martini (Anthony Road Wine Company, NY) and Eric Pooler (Sonoma County Vineyard Technical Group\/Nuveen Natural Capital, CA), had ever seen a spotted lanternfly. Entomologist Julie Urban, the foremost authority on SLF in America, and extension educator and SLF researcher Brian Walsh, both of Penn State, served as our guides. And we were joined by a host of collaborating scientists from Penn State, Cornell and Virginia Tech; regulators from the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture (first responders to SLF’s arrival) and New York Ag & Markets; as well as SLF program specialists from USDA\u2019s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, all eager to see (or show) what we\u2019re up against.<\/p>\n

Why Berks County? As Brian explained in a brief he compiled for our visit, \u201cLanternflies were discovered in Berks County in 2014 and for several years were a very local phenomenon. As they have spread, they have garnered national attention, including on Saturday Night Live.<\/strong><\/a> While now found in 17 states in much of the Mid-Atlantic and extending into the Midwest, Berks County remains a location of research and observation of SLF populations as we try to use population movements and shifts to predict how it will behave in other states and countries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brian added that \u201cthe SLF population peaked in Berks County in approximately 2019-2021 and in many areas now almost seems absent, with smaller populations surging up locally in subsequent seasons.\u201d So, the strategy for our visit was to see spots where populations have dwindled versus places they seem to be surging, as well as ongoing impacts at local and landscape levels. To that end, we visited vineyards, an apple orchard, a commercial nursery, railway corridors, and Blue Marsh Lake, a vast recreational preserve managed by the Army Corps of Engineers where SLF insecticide trials have been graciously permitted. We saw lots of blackened and dead trees of heaven (SLF\u2019s primary host), and thousands of adult lanternflies in all their gross glory\u2014feeding, mating (see photo above), laying eggs (see video below) and shooting out honeydew (including in my eye). Harvest time is their (and our industry\u2019s) most active season.<\/p>\n

\nhttps:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Pooping-shorter-with-music.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Exactly four years ago, in October 2020, science writer Jeff MacGregor penned a piece for Smithsonian Magazine<\/em> titled, \u201cCan Scientists Stop the Plague of the Spotted Lanternfly?\u201d<\/strong><\/a> In it, he described SLF as \u201cruinous and beautiful, the size of your thumb and a destroyer of worlds.\u201d That language might seem a bit hyperbolic now that researchers and growers have learned more and gotten better at managing the pest. As Nick commented after the trip, \u201cWe learned that there is life after SLF. But it will certainly increase the cost and complexity of farming operations in the areas where it spreads.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, grape is the number-one thing SLF likes to eat. It might not destroy our world, exactly, but as it proliferates, its economic impact will grow ever more significant. So, NGRA has asked Julie to leverage her SLF expertise to lead a large-scale research project to help the grape and wine industry fight this prodigious pest. To those of you in infested states and those worried about SLF\u2019s arrival, \u201cwe hope that we can galvanize a united response to the tremendous pest issue that\u2019s your reality and our future,\u201d Randy said. It\u2019s scary stuff!<\/p>\n

Donnell Brown<\/strong>
\nPresident<\/p>\n

https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/SLF-Egg-Laying-short_lowres.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thematically appropriate for the spooky season, four NGRA members and I spent the beginning of October up close and personal with one of the grape and wine industry\u2019s biggest bogeymen: the spotted lanternfly. The five us spent two packed days, October 2-3, 2024, on an SLF Field Trip in Berks County, PA, creeped out and […]<\/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":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ngwi-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5097","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=5097"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5097\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5118,"href":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5097\/revisions\/5118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}