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El Dorado County details eradication campaign after discovery of glassy winged sharpshooter
Summary
County agriculture staff told supervisors Feb. 3 that two glassy winged sharpshooters trapped in El Dorado Hills triggered an eradication effort that has treated more than 800 properties and received about $4 million in state funding; treatments are voluntary and staff urged resident consent to prevent reinfestation.
Corey Larson, assistant agricultural commissioner, told the Board of Supervisors on Feb. 3 that El Dorado County shifted into an eradication response after two glassy winged sharpshooters were trapped in the Serrano neighborhood in October 2024. The county runs an annual pest-detection program that deploys more than 1,000 traps between May and October and augments that with visual surveys and nursery inspections.
“We have treated over 800 residences for glassy winged sharpshooter in the El Dorado Hills area,” Larson said, describing a mix of door-to-door outreach, mailings and coordination with HOAs and master gardeners. He said staff mailed about 20,000 postcards in January 2026, sent 3,500 consent forms for treatments and had received roughly 1,500 signed consent forms and about 120 refusals to date.
Larson described the dual treatment approach: an injected systemic product (Merit 2F, active ingredient imidacloprid) that provides longer-term control, and a foliar spray (Altus, active ingredient a pyrethroid-class compound) used to knock down adults and nymphs. He said treatments are performed by a licensed pest-control company, Neighborly Pest Management, and that county staff monitor sites and pause work if conditions change for safety reasons.
The presentations stressed the pest''s risk to the local wine industry: El Dorado County's 2024 crop report estimated wine-grape value at about $8 million; staff noted the county's overall crop value is much larger and that Pierce's disease (caused by the bacterium Xylella fastidiosa) has no cure. The county has also released biological control agents'tiny parasitic wasps'to attack sharpshooter egg masses; Larson said about 6,500 wasps have been released with evidence of parasitized egg masses.
Larson said the county has received about $4 million in state emergency funding for the effort, has spent roughly $2.1 million so far and expects to spend another approximately $2 million before June; he and other staff cautioned that the funding is shared across multiple pest responses statewide and may need to be renewed. Supervisors asked whether the county could require treatments; staff said treatments are voluntary now and that mandatory abatement has been used only after multiple years of persistent infestation in other counties.
The county emphasized that voluntary consent helps the eradication succeed. As Larson put it, “Every resident that goes untreated is a potential reservoir for repopulation.”
