- Author: Anne E Schellman
I'm excited to announce that we've partnered with Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Xerces Society to bring a class all about pollinators!
You can sign up for our event at http://ucanr.edu/pollinators/2019 It's being held Thursday, September 5, 2019 from 6:00-7:30 p.m. in Harvest Hall Rooms D&E at the Stanislaus County Agricultural Center.
Please join us for a fun evening of learning about native pollinators, the plants and habitats they prefer, and the best way to “invite” them to your landscape! Free wildflower seed packets for participants while they last.
We are asking for a voluntary payment of $2 per person to help pay speaker mileage fees.
Resources
Beyond the honey bee: Learn more about California native bees. UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden. Taken from https://arboretum.ucdavis.edu/blog/beyond-honey-bee-learn-more-about-california-native-bees on August 21, 2019.
- Author: Anne E Schellman
Time for a fun pop quiz!
- Do you spend a lot of time gardening or thinking about gardening?
- Are you often asked for gardening advice by friends or family members?
- Do you enjoy learning new information about gardening and pest management?
- Are you interested in helping others and giving back to your community?
If you answered an enthusiastic “yes” to these questions and you live in Stanislaus County, please consider applying for the UCCE Master Gardener Program!
What is the University of California Cooperative Extension Master Gardener Program?
The program was created in the 1980's to help extend research-based information from University of California directly to the public. Volunteers are trained to preserve and encourage healthy environments with sustainable gardening, green waste reduction, and water conservation.
How are Master Gardeners Trained?
Master Gardener volunteers spend 5 hours per week for 19 weeks learning about soil, water management, ornamental and drought tolerant plants, landscape tree care, pest management, and much more. Classes are taught by University experts and advisors.
How do you become a UCCE Master Gardener?
We are taking applications for our 2020 class that will start in January. To learn more and apply:
- Visit our Become a UCCE Master Gardener website and read the training information on the page.
- Click on the bright yellow button to fill out our application form before September 8, 2019!
- Attend a mandatory orientation meeting in October
- Interview in November
- Acceptance letters mailed in early December
- Author: Anne E Schellman
On June 5, the University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) Stanislaus County Master Gardener Program hosted an online giving event called #BigDigDay. This was an opportunity for community members to invest in our new local program.
Together, we raised a total of $630! These funds will go towards helping us purchase needed items like a pop-up-tent, tables, chairs, brochure holders, and other materials needed for outdoor events, workshops, and classes.
Our twenty-three brand new UCCE Master Gardener volunteers will soon (July) be out in the community! Please stop by and say “hello” if you see them at the Stanislaus County Fair, a local farmers market, local nursery, or local library.
If you are interested in becoming a UCCE Master Gardener, visit our website and fill out our online interest survey. We will be recruiting for our next class soon!
If you missed out on #BigDigDay, you don't have to wait until next year to give to our program. Visit the UC Cooperative Extension website for Stanislaus County at https://donate.ucanr.edu/pages/uccestanislaus and choose “UCCE Stanislaus County - Master Gardener Fund” from the designation heading.
- Author: Rick Vetter
[Reblog from Pests in the Urban Landscape]
If you were to ask an audience of more than a few people if they or anyone they know has ever seen or been bitten by a brown recluse spider in California, many hands would be raised. This is quite remarkable because the brown recluse spider has NEVER established breeding populations in California!
The myth of the brown recluse has been generated and sustained by:
- Physician misdiagnoses (where many skin lesions of diverse non-spider origin are blamed on a non-existent spider)
- Media articles that report claims of horrendous bite injury without proof of spider involvement
- Misidentification of harmless brown spiders as brown recluses by the general public as well as "authorities" who lack adequate spider identification skills
Brown recluse mythology is persistent throughout North America, even in places such as Alaska and Canada, which are far from where the spider is actually found. In some places, it is easy to argue against this myth because no recluse spiders have ever been found there. For California, this argument is less definitive because the state's south eastern deserts are home to several related native species such as the desert recluse spider (a different species than the brown recluse).
Additionally, in urban Los Angeles County, there have been rare records of isolated populations of the Chilean recluse spider. However, the native desert species occur where few people live and the Chilean recluse has only been found in commercial buildings, never in homes. There have been no confirmed bites by this non-native Chilean recluse since it was originally found in Los Angeles in the late 1930s. There have been rare findings of brown recluse in California, but these have occurred as hitchhikers in moving boxes from other areas of the country and the spider was destroyed after locating.
Although there are some recluse spiders in limited areas within California, this does not explain the hundreds (and maybe thousands) of brown recluse bite misdiagnoses made in California each year. In a study mapping out such misdiagnoses vs. known populations of recluse spiders in California, more than 95% of the purported brown recluse bites occurred in urban areas where the spiders are not known to inhabit.
For many decades throughout North America, it has been readily assumed by the medical community that many skin lesions resulted from brown recluse spider envenomation. However, recent research shows that most of these lesions are unrelated to spiders. Causes include some medical conditions that are much worse than any recluse bite would be.
One real danger of such a recluse bite misdiagnosis is that the actual causal condition will not respond to recluse bite remedy, allowing the real condition to continue on unabated, worsening and potentially leading to death. Some of these afflictions misdiagnosed as recluse bite include: cancer, leukemia, lymphoma, Lyme disease, bacterial infections, anthrax, adverse reaction to blood thinners, poison ivy, poison oak, chemical burn, thermal burn, and more. One of the most common conditions misdiagnosed as a spider bite is the bacterial infections caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
To find out more about the different species of recluse spiders, identifying features of the brown recluse, and other spiders commonly mistaken for recluses, see the recently updated Pest Notes: Brown Recluse and Other Recluse Spiders on the UC IPM website.
[Article originally published as "The Brown Recluse Spider Does NOT Occur in California" in the Spring 2019 issue of the Retail Nursery and Garden Center IPM News.]
/span>Winter is the time of year when many people prune their deciduous fruit trees. However, did you know that now is not the right time to prune apricot and cherry trees?
In the past, home gardeners were advised to prune stone fruit trees (cherries, apricots, plums, peaches, and nectarines) after trees lose their leaves and go dormant. However, cherry and apricot trees are more likely to be attacked by certain diseases that can be spread by rain.
Gardeners who prune cherry and apricot trees during winter create wounds that may be invaded by fungal and bacterial canker diseases. Symptoms show up in spring and summer, when infected tree limbs wilt and suddenly die with their leaves still attached, or when bark becomes discolored and limbs produce an amber-colored ooze.
This year, wait to prune apricot and cherry trees until late spring or early summer. For more information about fruit trees, visit The California Backyard Orchard.