Napa County agricultural officials are asking all residential grape growers to remove and dispose of their fruit. Their counterparts in Sonoma County are limiting such appeals to those living close to where the European grapevine moth has been trapped.
The requests are part of efforts to combat the grapevine moth, which was first confirmed in Napa nearly a year ago.
Sonoma County Agricultural Commissioner Cathy Neville said Monday she is seeking help from only those residential grape growers who live within 1,000 meters of traps that have caught the moths.
Neville noted that Napa County has trapped more than 100,000 moths in the past year. In contrast, Sonoma has trapped 51 moths.
Even so, a state quarantine area based on those finds now includes Healdsburg, Windsor, Sebastopol, Santa Rosa, Sonoma and the southeast tip of Petaluma.
Napa County this week will send its residents 40,000 post cards about the moths. Dave Whitmer, that county's agricultural commissioner, said he wants home grape growers "to please strip the fruit for this year."
Instead of removing the grapes, homeowners can repeatedly spray one of the approved pesticides, he said.
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