Why is the Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter a Threat to Napa County Ecology and Economy?
How the insect hurts the ecology around us The Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter is leafhopper insect that has a stylus – like a little drill – that bores through wood. With this unique apparatus, the insect can transmit lethal diseases into the wood portion of plants and trees. With this stylus, it also sucks life-giving water out of all the plants it feeds on. Each adult Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter sucks out 200 to 300 times its body weight in water every day. This is the equivalent of an adult human drinking 4,300 gallons of water per day! This loss of water is even hurting our oak trees, which are currently trying to fight off other diseases. The Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter is related to the Blue-Green Sharpshooter, which just feeds on tips of plants that can be pruned away. Unlike its smaller relative, the Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter can damage many trees, crops and plants because of its ability to transmit diseases into woody parts of plants, trees and crops that cannot be pruned away. Ple
