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N.C.'s Wine Industry Fights to Keep Japanese Beetles From Destroying Grapes

Posted on: Monday, 8 August 2005, 18:00 CDT

Aug. 8--ELKIN -- North Carolina's grape-growing pioneers have a lot to deal with -- hurricanes, tornadoes, an increasing deer population, a slew of microscopic fungi and swarms of birds that are reminiscent of Hitchcock.

But this summer, it's Japanese beetles that are having a devastating effect on the burgeoning Tar Heel wine industry.

"It's definitely worse than any year I have ever seen," said Frank Hobson of Boonville. He and his wife, Lenna, are among the top five growers of vinifera, or wine-producing, grapes in the state.

"It gets to where I can't stand it," Hobson said. "It just gets me so uptight."

Japanese beetles are no stranger to most any backyard gardener. Among the preferred snacks of the insects are roses, apples and sweet corn.

Vineyards also are susceptible to the beetles. And this summer's excessive rain has brought millions of the insects to wreak havoc.

Japanese beetles don't eat the grapes -- the insects are gone before the grapes ripen. But the beetles "skeletonize" grape leaves, eating everything but the veins.

Without leaves, which make energy for the plant, the vines cannot make flowers and fruit to reproduce or store energy for winter. So the plants die.

The problem is happening more and more in North Carolina's main wine region, the Yadkin Valley area near Winston-Salem.

Sean McRitchie, an Elkin grape grower and wine industry consultant, said he had never even seen a Japanese beetle before he moved to Yadkin Valley from Oregon in 1998.

Japanese beetles have been creeping across the Eastern United States since 1916, when they were introduced by Japan. For now, the Mississippi River seems to have kept Japanese beetles from moving farther west, so California and Oregon wineries are immune.

European wine regions also don't have beetle problems.

Japanese beetles sport a metallic green and copper armor that protects them from predators and helps them withstand several insecticides.

On the surface, the beetles are a big problem for only two months, from mid-June to mid-August. But in reality, the problem is multiplying underground.

By the end of this month, female beetles will have laid about 50 eggs each, depositing them 2 to 6 inches below ground in grassy pastures or lawns. Two weeks later, the eggs will hatch and spend most of the year in "grub stage." The grubs crawl around underground, pigging out on grass roots and destroying lawns.

In May, all of that will come to a halt as the grubs quickly pupate. In June, the next generation of Japanese beetles will emerge as a visible pestilence.

Beetles only migrate about half a mile, but that's plenty to get them from a grassy pasture to an adjacent vineyard.

"You need to separate ... the grass from the grapes," said Ken Sorenson, an extension entomologist at N.C. State University. "Green, grassy areas are Japanese beetle heaven on Earth."

An insecticide called Sevin is the poison of choice for most grape farmers. The pesticide kills insects that chew up plants, but it does not harm the grapes.

"Sevin might sound nasty, but it only kills what eats the leaves," McRitchie said.

But Collins Barwick of Raleigh, who grows wine grapes as a hobby on family land near Salisbury, said the beetles have been so bad this year that some people are overspraying and indirectly killing off beneficial bugs, too.

Sevin also doesn't help as much in a rainy summer, because it keeps washing off the plants.

Another strategy is to set traps in green areas away from the vines.

Traps contain an attractant that lures the bugs, which then fall into the trap and die.

But Mark Greene, who is in the process of building Elkin Mill Vineyard near Elkin, said he has given up on the traps.

"They stink!" he said. "When the beetles die, they are the worst-smelling things."

Instead, Greene is the proud owner of what he calls "the Cadillac of sprayers" to get Sevin on his vines. It seemed to be working as he surveyed his vineyard one day last month.

"These bugs are not 1 percent of what was on here 10 days ago, before I sprayed," he said.

But could Japanese beetles not be so bad after all? McRitchie's father, Bob, seems to think so.

"Leave them. They invigorate the vines," preaches Bob McRitchie, who teaches winemaking at Surry Community College in Dobson.

The McRitchies have been pioneers in the wine industry for years. They were in Napa Valley, Calif., before it was such a big wine area, and they were involved with some of the first vineyards and wineries in Oregon.

Sean McRitchie agrees with his father that Japanese beetles could almost benefit grape vines -- if they would only eat the leaves that surround the grapes. That would allow increased ventilation as the fruit ripens.

Unfortunately, though, the beetles eat the delectable, tender leaves on the top of the vines and pass up the tougher, older ones toward the bottom.

Sean McRitchie opts for an integrated approach that tries to minimize chemical input and instead takes advantage of naturally occurring insecticides, such as oil that comes from a tree in India.

Sorenson, of NCSU, also advocates a chemical-free method -- using milky spore bacteria to kill grubs in the ground. But for that to work, you have to treat a large area. And it takes two to three years to get the milky spore population established.

Hobson, the Boonville grower, relies on Sevin. He estimates that spraying insecticides costs farmers about $23 per acre with each application.

Cruising through his vineyards recently in his small, battered pickup, Hobson pointed out some Japanese beetle damage. But his focus was elsewhere.

"People said zinfandel wouldn't grow here, but look at that," Hobson said, delightedly pointing out some vines.

Yes, the Japanese beetles have taken their toll this year. But in Yadkin Valley, the fruit will soon arrive -- and the beetles will head underground for another year.

TAR HEEL WINE FACTS

--North Carolina has 48 wine producers in 28 counties, with more opening each year.

--There are 350 individually owned grape vineyards across the state.

--State wineries produced 600,000 gallons of wine in 2004.

--The wine industry created 855 jobs in North Carolina last year.

--A vineyard's average gross income is $3,059 per acre.

--North Carolina ranks 12th for wine production and 10th for grape production in the United States.

--The Yadkin Valley was the first region in North Carolina to be recognized as an official American Viticultural Area for growing grapes.

--Elkin will host the fifth annual Yadkin Valley Wine Festival on May 20.

Source: www.ncwine.org, N.C. Grape Council, Yadkin Valley Wine Trail

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