- Author: Karrie Reid
Did you ever wonder how that latest plant variety made its way to your local nursery? Few people outside of the plant breeding and marketing industry realize that the “new” plant you just saw at the garden center last weekend actually began its journey from 6 to 20 years earlier 1 . One of the last steps in that journey is the plant trial.
Plant trials take place all over the country at universities and public gardens and are usually the last step before a company decides to launch a new cultivar onto the market. Although they will have evaluated a promising new...
- Author: Niamh Quinn
Trapping is the safest and most effective method for controlling rats and mice in and around homes, garages and other structures. Rodents that live in close association with humans are called commensal rodents. Rats and mice are the most frequently encountered commensal rodents in California.
Selecting the correct trap
Before trapping, make sure you know what rodent pest you have. It is a very common mistake to select the wrong size trap when you have not yet determined whether you have mice or rats (and the correctly identified rat species).
You will not catch a rat with a mouse trap, and you will not catch a mouse with a rat trap. To determine the...
- Author: Mary L Blackburn
- Author: Katherine Uhde
Since 2011, Baby Boomers, a population with unique health, economic, and nutritional needs, are turning 65 at a rate of 10,000 per day, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Disease prevention strategies to live a quality life with a myriad of health concerns are important life skills. In urban areas, low-income senior housing complexes are increasing rapidly. A UC Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC ANR) assessment found low income or affordable senior housing units increased in Alameda County at a rate of 22.66% from 2016 to 2018 (8,640 and 10,598 respectively).
Very few nutrition or wellness education programs are available at the housing sites. UC ANR researchers found elders in low-income senior housing...
- Author: Elaine Lander
It has been rumored that Ben Franklin proposed the turkey as the national bird and symbol of our nation. Whether this is true or not, there is evidence that Franklin thought highly of this holiday bird. In a letter to his daughter, Franklin called the turkey a “respectable bird…though a little vain & silly, [he is] a bird of courage and would not hesitate to attack.”
In California, wild turkeys have started to become more common sightings in our communities. Some Californians may enjoy watching wildlife, but others find them to be quite the nuisance. Wild turkeys foraging for food in residential areas can destroy landscapes and gardens, leave their droppings on sidewalks and patios, and have been...
- Author: Dustin Blakey
Recently brown marmorated stink bugs (Haylomorpha halys) were found in Inyo and Mono counties. This invasive pest from Asia is relatively new to our area. Its first sighting was in Bishop last year.
We have plenty of species of stink bugs on the east side, but this one is especially annoying because it tends to aggregate in large numbers and will attempt to get inside homes and structure to avoid cold weather. As our temperatures return to more normal ranges, I would expect more issues with home ingress.
We have had reports from Swall Meadows down to Big Pine, and possibly an isolated case in Olancha. My hunch is they arrived from northern California, not down south, but there is no way to tell for...
