The monster that is threatening to turn premium Napa Valley wine into rotting slime was quickly plucked out from underneath the peeling bark of a grapevine.

The white cocoon containing the beast was barely large enough to cover biologist Monica Cooper's fingertip, but its presence is no more welcome in Wine Country than pod people from outer space.

Hundreds, possibly thousands, of European grapevine moths are now emerging from cocoons in dozens of vineyards in the heart of the world famous wine-growing region. It is the first time the pest has ever been seen in North America.

"This one is in the pupal stage," said Cooper, Napa County's viticulture farm adviser and the director of the UC Cooperative Extension   Read more...