America’s first commercial vineyard was located in Kentucky and, before prohibition, Kentucky was the third largest grape and wine producing state in the country.  With prohibition, grape acreage was used to produce tobacco instead.  However, in 1976, Kentucky passed legislation allowing wineries to begin operations and since the 2004 tobacco buyout, the grape and wine industry has rebounded tremendously (source:  University of Kentucky College of Agriculture Magazine).   Grapevine acreage in the state of Kentucky has grown tremendously in 10 years, from 67 acres in 1999 to 600 acres today.  Kentucky has over 113 grape producers growing the following categories of grapes:  European, French-American hybrids, and American/Native.  In just the past five years, the number of small farm wineries in the state has grown from 15 to more than 65 and an estimated 100,000 cases of wine are produced each year (kentuckywine.com).  Industry statistics from 2014 published on wineamerica.org show that Kentucky ranked 9th in the nation for wine production with 2,241,527 gallons produced that year.   

We plan to survey 20-22 vineyards across Kentucky, depending on funding.  We will have a trapping program designed to target two moth pests:  Christmas Berry Webworm and European Grapevine Moth.  The traps will be in the vineyards from May to September/October.  We will also conduct visual surveys for Spotted Lanternfly and Cucurbit Beetle.