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"California&amp;#39;s thriving premium wine industry may be in danger. A recently arrived small insect known as the glassy-winged sharpshooter is spreading a deadly vine blight called Pierce&amp;#39;s disease, which is rapidly moving toward Napa Valley, the heart of California&amp;#39;s fine wine industry. A comprehensive report in the upcoming October 15th issue of Wine Spectator magazine concludes that the insect &amp;quot;could potentially cause billions of dollars in damage and wipe whole grapegrowing districts off the map.&amp;quot; There is currently no known cure to this fatal vine disease. Pierce&amp;#39;s disease has been lurking in California&amp;#39;s vineyards for more than a century, spread by another insect called the blue-green sharpshooter. Over the years, the disease remained a minor problem because the blue-green sharpshooter is a relatively feeble bug. The glassy-winged sharpshooter which first made its appearance in southern California about 10 years ago, is bigger, stronger and more voracious than its blue-green relative causing the spread of Pierce&amp;#39;s disease to suddenly accelerate, with no end in sight. The insect has already infested 11 California counties, including Sacramento, just 70 miles east of Napa Valley. In late July, a single glassy-winged sharpshooter was trapped in the small town of Middletown...less than a dozen miles from the vineyards of Napa and Sonoma. Robert Dowell, the chief entomologist for the California Department of Food and Agriculture, told Wine Spectator that &amp;quot;we&amp;#39;re feeling like we&amp;#39;re sitting on a time bomb...the problem is no one knows where the bomb is, and nobody knows how fast it is ticking, and nobody knows how much time is left.&amp;quot; Wine Spectator cautions that if the dire predictions about the spread of the disease come true, the Golden State&amp;#39;s wine industry may face setbacks for many years to come."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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