Native habitat restoration in wine grape vineyards as a pest management strategy

Perennial crop systems such as wine grapes have begun using cover crops and hedgerows to increase beneficial insects and promote sustainable vineyard management in areas like New Zealand and California. However, in arid wine growing regions such as eastern Washington, cover crops are often prohibitively expensive due to water costs. We wanted to determine if native plants, which require little or no irrigation, could be used to increase beneficial insects and enhance conservation biological control of vineyard pests in eastern Washington. After locating vineyards with some form of native habitat restoration in four different growing regions of eastern Washington, yellow sticky traps and leaf samples were used to monitor beneficial and pest insect numbers in the habitat restored vineyards and nearby conventional vineyards over a three year period. Beneficial insects were found to be most diverse and abundant in native habitat, and were significantly more diverse and abundant in vineyards with native habitat restoration over conventional vineyards. This indicates that native plants used as cover crops or hedge rows may be a good addition to conservation biological control management strategies, especially in arid areas.