Washinigton Wine & Coronavirus Pt 2
With today’s Fruit Grower Report, I’m Bob Larson. Without visitors or on-site sales, Washington wineries are doing everything possible to adjust to the new normal brought on by coronavirus.
Washington Wine Commission president Steve Warner says one of the ways they’re dealing with it is in the form of a social media event tomorrow …
WARNER … “You mentioned we’ve been a month locked down. We’re coming up on the 40th day if you can believe that. So, this Friday for example we’re coming up with a program with a big social media kind of ‘show your support of local restaurants.’ What we’re encouraging all 1,000 of our Washington state wineries to go and get take-out on a single day just as a show of support. And, take photos of it and post it and everything and just saying how important it is that we support each other and stay together.”
Warner says it’s something all wine lovers can take part in …
WARNER … “We’ll launch that and have that this Friday. So, if you grab a bottle of Washington wine and you go out and get some local take-out and then you snap a photo and we’ll see your picture Bob on our social media network.”
So, do I need a hashtag when I post my pics? …
WARNER … “We always do #WAwine to pull everybody together, so capital W, capital A, and then wine, where we pull everything together and we’re very active on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, so it will be fun to see the momentum that we can gather behind that as well.”
Warner encourages everyone across the state to get out to the wineries and tasting rooms as soon as the governor allows it and show our support for Washington wines.
####
BL: Welcome back to another “Fruit Bites” brought to you by Valent U.S.A. With us again is Valent’s Allison Walston. And this week Allison, let’s talk about a new insect pest in the PNW?
AW: It’s called the Houdini fly and it kills mason bees by kleptoparasitism
BL: So, “klepto” like a shoplifter or somebody stealing from me?
AW: pretty much parasitism by theft! The Houdini fly female sneaks into the mason bee house, lays it eggs on the pollen meant to feed the mason bee larvae. Then the fly eggs hatch, into maggots, which eat all the food before the mason bee larvae can
which causes them to starve.
BL: So, for those of us who may have a mason bee house, what sort of steps can we take to try and prevent this?
AW: Use nesting materials that are easy to open & inspect for maggots before spring. For more info on the Houdini fly, check out the WSDA website.
BL: Well, thanks Allison. Join us again next time for Fruit Bites, brought to you by Valent. Until then, I’m Bob Larson.
https://cms.agr.wa.gov/WSDAKentico/Documents/PP/PestProgram/PestAlert-HoudiniFlyFeb2020.pdf
