A monster from the nether regions

Abstract

The Phylloxera aphid, or vine louse, is a pest, which in the second half of the 19th century nearly obliterated the vineyards of Europe. The Phylloxera was accidentally introduced by the European viticulturists themselves, who imported an American vine in their attempt to cultivate a vine resistant to the Oidium fungi. It entered the Dual Monarchy through infested vine rootstock from Great Britain, unwittingly assisted by experts of the State Experimental Station for Viticulture and Pomology at Klosterneuburg near Vienna, which was an ideal starting-point for the aphid's devastating progress across the vine-growing regions of Austro-Hungary. Despite the strict measures that were undertaken to stop it from spreading further, the aphid succeeded somehow in surmounting the large distances between countries and managed to spread to almost all the regions where the grape vine was cultivated. In Slovenia, it was first observed in 1880 both in the surroundings of Piran as well as in the Bizcljsko region. After an initial phase of doubt and hesitation, a way of combating this pest was found, by grafting cuttings of the European vines onto Phylloxera-resistant North American vine rootstock, which ultimately ensured the continuation of viticulture in the affected regions.