Damage Caused by Japanese Beetle
Agriculture
JB would cause damage to most fruit trees, vineyards for wine, raisins and table grapes, other berry crops, turf and nursery stock. Small farmers and nurseries near urban areas will likely be affected the most.
CDFA is a member of the National Plant Board and follows the national and international standards outlined in the U.S. Domestic JB Harmonization Plan. This JB Plan specifies the requirements to remain JB-free based upon general detection trapping and intensive trapping (delimitation) should a possible incipient infestation be detected in an uninfested state. If a state finds an incipient infestation and responds by conducting an eradication project followed by delimitation trapping with no subsequent JB detections, that state will be nationally and internationally recognized as being free from JB.
In order to prevent the introduction of JB via the shipment of infested nursery stock, most western states, including California have implemented quarantines against infested states. The quarantines are based on the U.S. Domestic JB Harmonization Plan (JB Plan) developed by the National Plant Board. The National Plant Board (NPB), which is comprised of all US state regulatory officials, formed a JB Working Group to develop the JB Plan. Participants included scientists with expertise on the JB and representatives from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Canadian Food Inspection Agency, other states’ regulatory experts and the American Nursery and Landscape Association.
Specific objectives and goals of the JB Plan were to:
- Establish a framework that encourages states to consistently and appropriately characterize Japanese beetle pest risk and infestation status based on up-to-date scientific and field information;
- Pursue more uniform adoption and implementation of pest risk mitigation measures to reduce pest risk to a level acceptable to receiving states. It is universally accepted that quarantine action must be shown to be necessary, reasonable, technically justified and limited to the action needed to adequately mitigate the assessed pest risk
CDFA is a member of the NPB and as such, is covered by the JB Plan. Under this plan, California is provided the highest national protection from the introduction of JB by being recognized as a “Category 1” state. This means that all states with JB infestations must provide any host material shipped to the state with the highest level of quarantine certification. All of California’s JB exclusion, detection and eradication activities have their foundation in the JB Harmonization Plan which is also internationally recognized by Canada.