The Corkscrew | The phylloxera wine louse is back with a vengeance
Vineyards in California and Oregon on alert as the pest that devastated Europe’s grapevines in the 1800s turns its sights on once-resistant America
The wine louse, phylloxera, is a tiny insect – an aphid, to be precise – that lives in and eats the roots of grapevines. It travels by stealth – on the soles of shoes, by crawling from vine to vine and even on the breeze.
Despite its size, phylloxera can wreak havoc. Between the late 1860s and 1890s, the pest almost completely wiped out Europe’s vineyards. Countless winemakers lost their livelihood. In an effort to save their crops they tried everything from potions and poisons to flooding (it was thought the pest could be drowned) and adding toxic chemicals to the soil.
The louse destroyed grapevines by feeding on the roots, effectively starving the shoots and grapes of nourishment.
But where did it come from?
