Sign up to help WSDA watch for high-priority invasive pests

Karla Salp
Communications

Is tomato fruit borer lurking in your garden? Or is Scots pine blister rust on your tree? Early detection is critical for protecting the state’s forests, parks, farms, and gardens from invasive pests and diseases.

That’s why WSDA’s Pest Program has a new project to be on the lookout for some of the nation’s highest-priority pests and plant diseases that are not yet known to be in the state.

The program will look for national high-priority pests including pests like spotted lanternfly, which has rapidly spread and decimated vineyards in the Eastern U.S.; apple proliferation phytoplasma, a type of bacteria that inhabits, impedes, and kills orchards; and the tomato brown rugose virus, which stunts tomatoes making their fruits unpalatable.

To look for these and other* pests, the WSDA Pest Program needs your help. They are asking farms, community gardens, parks, and even private property owners to sign up to participate in the project this summer. There are two ways to participate:

• Summer trapping – WSDA trappers will place traps early in the summer and check them several times throughout the season. The traps will be removed in the fall.
• Single site visit – WSDA staff will visit the site once to perform a visual inspection for pests. 

Specifically, the team is looking for properties that will have one or more of the following on-site this summer: 

• Fruit or nut trees
• Vegetables
• Fruiting shrubs/vines
• Ornamental trees/shrubs

While anyone in Washington is welcome to sign up, the program is especially interested in sites near highways or ports.

If you are willing to participate by offering your property for trapping or a site visit, please sign up to have your location considered. The Pest Program will review your information and contact you by May 15, 2023, to let you know if your property has been selected as a pest survey site for the upcoming season.

WSDA has a long history of looking for invasive pests to prevent them from establishing in the state. For example, the longest-running program is the invasive moth program, which has kept spongy moth (formerly known as gypsy moth) from establishing in Washington (despite numerous introductions) for almost 50 years. Public support and participation have always played a key role in protecting our state from invasive pests and diseases.

With your support and early detection, there is a much higher chance of eradicating or significantly slowing the spread of any new pest. 

*The complete list of pests for this project:

Scientific Name	Common Name
Lycorma delicatula	Spotted lanternfly
Adoxophyes orana	Summer fruit tortrix moth
Anthonomus rubi	Strawberry blossom weevil
Diabrotica speciosa	Cucurbit beetle
Helicoverpa armigera	Old world bollworm
Heteronychus arator	Black maize beetle
Neoleucinodes elegantalis	Tomato fruit borer
Thaumatotibia leucotreta	False codling moth
Phthorimea absoluta	Tomato leafminer
Candidatus Phytoplasma australiense 16SrXII-B	Australian grapevine yellows
Candidatus Phytoplasma mali 16SrX-A	Apple proliferation
Candidatus Phytoplasma phoenicium 16SrIX-B	Almond witches' broom
Candidatus Phytoplasma prunorum 16SrX-F	European stone fruit yellows
Candidatus Phytoplasma solani 16SrXII-A	Bois noir; Stolbur
Candidatus Phytoplasma ziziphi	Jujube witches' broom
Cronartium flaccidum	Scots pine blister rust
Magnaporthiopsis maydis	Late wilt of corn
Orthotospovirus Groundnut bud necrosis virus	Groundnut bud necrosis virus (GBNV)
Hymenoscyphus fraxineus	Ash dieback
Tobamovirus Cucumber green mottle mosaic virus	Cucumber green mottle mosaic virus (CGMMV)
Tobamovirus Tomato brown rugose fruit virus	Tomato brown rugose (ToBRFV)
Alectra vogelii	Yellow witchweed
Onopordum acaulon	Horse thistle

 

Japanese beetle treatments are starting: what you need to know

By Amber Betts
WSDA Communications

By now many Yakima and Benton county residents have signed up for free treatment to help WSDA get rid of the pest, Japanese beetle. If you haven’t heard, we have an infestation of an invasive species on our hands in that area, and we are working with the residents there to get rid of it.

One of the ways we are doing that is by using a pesticide to treat properties. Treatments at residential properties are starting late this week or early next week. That means residents will need to know what to do before, during, and after treatment.

If you didn’t sign up, it’s not too late. You can sign
up online, bring your paper form to the nearest city hall, or have one of our agricultural technicians in the community help you sign up on their tablet computers.

If you did sign up, you’ll get a notification by phone 48 hours in advance, letting you know it’s your turn to get your property treated.

Here are a few things we need you to do to complete the treatment without a hitch.

Before treatment

·       Unlock your gates to ensure we can access your yards.

·       Remove children’s swimming pools and toys, and animal food and water bowls from the lawn.  

·       Remove any other items that can easily be moved from your lawn or grassy areas.

During treatment

·       Keep your animals inside.

·       Adults and children should remain inside so as not to interfere with the treatment.

After treatment

Our contractor will leave a door hanger on your front door, and a yard sign in the yard, indicating that the treatment is complete.

After treatment, you should wait until the product has dried before re-entering the area that was treated.

Attempted treatment

If the contractor attempts to treat your property, but cannot, they will leave a note and automatically reschedule. Some reasons they will not be able to complete treatment include locked gates, pets left outside, items left on lawns like dog bowls, etc. Once rescheduled, you’ll be notified of the date and anticipated time window. If a second attempt is unsuccessful, WSDA staff will contact you directly to schedule the treatment and ensure we have communicated efficiently.

Safety information

Health officials consider the product safe if humans, pets, and mammals are exposed. It specifically targets young t larvae or grubs in the ground.

Acelepryn has an excellent safety record when used as directed. If you're still concerned, you can limit direct contact with the product by following these tips:

• Avoid the area and keep pets inside until the treatment has dried.
• If you come into contact with the pesticide, wash the affected skin with soap and water.
• If your clothes come in contact with the pesticide, remove clothing and wash before wearing again.
• Eating produce grown in soil treated with Acelepryn is not expected to cause health effects. However, if you want to avoid exposure, take steps to avoid surface water runoff from areas treated with Acelepryn into home gardens. Learn more about how to prevent runoff when using pesticides.

For up-to-date information on our eradication project, visit agr.wa.gov/beetles

Three years since the stay home directive and Washington is still experiencing hunger

Photo courtesy Nils Johnson, Rural Resources
A photo showing the road conditions Rural Resources
encounters when delivering food to rural clients.

By Amber Betts
WSDA Communications

It was the most beautiful countryside you’ve ever seen. Crisp mountain air, gorgeous views and no sign of city life for days. But, traveling just a few miles took all day to traverse because of the remoteness of the location and the road conditions. When the team reached the elderly members of the community to deliver a food box, some of them lived without help, without transportation, and even without water, and some without electricity.

Recently staff from our We Feed Washington pilot food program, a program initiated by the legislature in response to COVID-19 and changes in federal relief programs, visited and rode along with a partner organization that helps distribute food to those in need in a rural county on tribal lands. Along the way, we realized that this program is so much more than home delivered groceries – it can be a real lifeline for people living with the most modest resources in the most remote parts of our state, doubling in many instances as a health and safety check for these tribal elders.

Despite the state’s best efforts, COVID-19’s impact on food insecurity persists. For some, that insecurity has only been exacerbated by the pandemic. For people in poverty in remote and rural locations across our state, a food security crisis has been continuous. The need recently compounded with the expiration of expanded SNAP benefits, leaving many families wondering how they’re going to feed their families, or themselves.

The WAFood Survey, Wave 4, conducted by researchers at the University of Washington, shows that nearly half the households sampled reported being food insecure in the past month. Further, researchers found that more than half of those food insecure households indicated that affording groceries was their top expense of concern, even slightly more than housing. 

The We Feed WA program was launched at the height of the pandemic to help procure and distribute emergency food to those in need as a state alternative to the federal Farmers to Families food box program that ended in abruptly in 2021. This pilot relief program operates as a compliment and in close cooperation with WSDA’s Food Assistance programs. 

After a brief stabilization in 2022, food banks and other hunger relief organizations began seeing demand increase last fall, said Katie Rains, food policy advisor at the Washington State Department of Agriculture. Many of the hunger relief organizations that WSDA partners with through We Feed WA and Food Assistance programs have indicated that they are serving twice as many customers now as they were in 2020, but with dramatically reduced inventory of emergency food, in some cases 80% less than they had on the shelves this time last year. The demand at food banks continues to grow.   

That’s why we (WSDA) helped fund and support the creation of this latest WAFOOD survey, so that the agency and partners in hunger relief across the state could help understand the experience of households and better inform policymakers on how inflation and reduction of COVID-19 benefits were colliding to impact food affordability.

The food supply is down, the need is up, and SNAP benefits have been reduced to the tune of $93 million less in grocery budgets each month, starting this month. This survey has been a valuable resource for understanding how COVID-19 has impacted household diets and food security since the first wave in 2020. The WAFOOD survey is a joint effort between the University of Washington and Washington State University. 

For more information, visit agr.wa.gov/about-wsda/we-feed-wa or email wefeedwa@agr.wa.gov. The pilot program is part of WSDA’s Focus on Food Initiative, ensuring safe, nutritious, local food is effectively produced and available throughout our state.