(Wines&Vines) - An early start to the wine grape growing season has primed pest populations to pose a bigger threat to Northwest grapevines than ever before.

Trapping indicates that the region’s two newest pests—spotted wing drosophila (D. suzukii) and brown marmorated stink bug (Halyomorpha halys)—are both enjoying population booms in a year when spring followed winter in less time than it took to say “hibernation.”

On June 30, Oregon Wine Research Institute distributed a report citing “very high” numbers of spotted wing drosophila (SWD) in Southern Oregon, with pressure also felt in the Umpqua Valley and the Columbia Gorge.

Researchers were also reporting SWD in traps as early as May 4 in British Columbia, with numbers more than a hundredfold that recorded in previous years.

Oregon scientists have also been fielding reports of stinkbugs, suggesting that momentum was building for a banner year for the insects.

“Everything’s tracking about two weeks earlier,” Steve Castagnoli, the institute’s extension horticulturist in the Columbia Gorge, told Wines & Vines. “But in terms of pests and diseases, I don’t think there’s anything that’s really out of the ordinary so far.”

That could change, however, if conditions allow current populations to flourish later in the season. While neither pest has yet proven to be a significant economic threat to wine grapes, low populations have helped limit a full understanding of their impact. SWD has been in the region since 2009, but it has been a greater threat to soft fruits and cherries, while the stinkbugs have been kept in check through various measures and haven’t spread much beyond the Willamette.