Costco Flowers and Garden Alerts: What Members Must Know Before Buying Plants

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For members who purchased potted landscaping stock during the late spring and summer months, agricultural officials advise against immediately transporting questionable plants back to the warehouse returns counter. Moving an infested plant through urban streets can spread adult insects or drop viable egg clusters into uninfested neighborhoods.

Home gardeners must look for three distinct physical markers:

1. Adult Leafhoppers: Look for insects approximately 13 to 14 millimeters long. They are dark brown to black with yellow-flecked heads and clear wings with dark veins. They typically perch quietly on green stems, quickly dodging around the branch when approached.
2. White Chalky Residue: Glassy-winged sharpshooters produce brochosomes, a microscopic proteinaceous powder that adults spread over their wing covers and leave on plant foliage. Infested shrubs often display chalky, whitewashed spots on leaves and stems.
3. Egg Masses on Leaf Undersides: Females deposit eggs in clusters just beneath the lower epidermis of healthy leaves, resembling greenish blister-like swellings. When the nymphs hatch, the blisters tear open, leaving brown, calloused scars.

If these signs appear on recently purchased desert willow shrubs or grapevines, the California Department of Food and Agriculture asks residents to leave the plant in place, photograph the insect, and immediately contact their local County Agricultural Commissioner or call the CDFA Exotic Pest Hotline.