- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Strikingly beautiful with a striped yellow abdomen and ruby red and black polka dot wings, the spotted lanternfly's esthetic appeal belies its destructive nature.
“Spotted lantern fly is a major threat to apples, grapes, stone fruits, roses, landscape trees and the timber industry,” said Surendra Dara, UC Cooperative Extension entomology and biologicals advisor in San Luis Obispo, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. “The agricultural industry and the public need to be looking out for this insect to prevent its migration and establishment in California.”
Native to China, spotted lanternflies were...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
UC Cooperative Extension plays an active and ongoing role in the effort to increase agricultural sustainability and minimize the industry's environmental impact, a role that was showcased at the third Ag Innovations Conference in March. Held in Santa Maria, the event was centered on the potential for using biological solutions for the challenges faced in agricultural production – such as pest control and nutrient management.
Many organic growers are already using these products successfully. Conference organizer Surendra Dara, UCCE advisor in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, believes increasing the use of biologicals in conventional agriculture, which...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The strawberry industry ended a long good-bye to methyl bromide in 2016. The fumigant had been used for decades to kill a wide range of soil-borne pathogens, weed seeds and insects, permitting the California strawberry industry to flourish. Scientists determined it was an ozone-depleting chemical in 1991, but its phase-out was delayed for years because of lack of equally effective alternatives.
Strawberry farmers now use a combination of approaches, including fumigation with other chemicals, soil oxygen deprivation, biofumigants, and beneficial microbes that improve soil biology. A greater arsenal is needed.
“Growers have three or four chemical...