Like many, you have probably been doing extra cleaning around the house lately. Have you been finding furry-looking brown casings in the corners of drawers, in the carpet, or in the closet? These might be carpet beetles.
Carpet beetles are small insects that are common pests in homes, museums, and warehouses. The larvae cause damage to natural fabrics and stored food. The larvae are often as big or bigger as the adults and appear fuzzy. They feed in dark, secluded places on a wide variety of animal products, leaving brown cast skins and pellets behind.
The adults feed on flowers...
- Author: Siavash Taravati
- Posted by: Elaine Lander
Western drywood termites (Incisitermes minor, Figure 1) are an important pest of structural wood in California, causing millions of dollars in damage annually. These termites are very cryptic, hidden in their galleries within wood members (pieces of wood), and only emerge during swarming. As a result, wood damage usually goes unnoticed for a long time.
Control options are generally categorized as either whole-structure treatment (heat treatment and fumigation) or local treatments (insecticide injection into the wood, high-power microwaves, electrocution, and other techniques).
Despite...
The sight of deer in the wild can be delightful but when these animals invade your garden, devouring everything in sight, people's ideas might change. The internet is full of advice for ridding your garden of deer, but beware, much of it is ineffective.
In the newly revised Pest Notes: Deer, author and retired Wildlife Specialist Robert Timm, shares detailed deer management methods proven by UC research to be effective. Pest management works best when you understand the pest's biology and behavior, so new information about the range of the different deer...
Gophers are well-known and certainly unwelcome pests in landscapes, gardens, lawns, and athletic turf. More correctly called pocket gophers, these rodents mostly remain hidden underground in tunnels and feed on plants from below, sometimes pulling whole plants into their tunnels. They prefer herbaceous plants but will eat a wide range of vegetation.
A single gopher can destroy a landscape quickly, so control measures need to begin as soon as the gopher is detected. Mounds of fresh soil are usually the first indication of their presence. Effective integrated management of pocket gophers relies largely on exclusion measures and trapping, although poison baits are also available.
Read more about gophers, their behavior, and...
Spring is here which means pest activity is on the rise. Termites are one of the top pest concerns for many city dwellers and rural residents alike. The infographic shows some interesting facts about termites.
Here in California, there are three kinds of termites considered pests including subterranean termites, drywood, and dampwood termites. The Formosan termite is one kind of subterranean termite found in California, although in limited areas.
Treatments differ for each type of termite, but there are many things you can to reduce infestations. This includes removing wood piles and scrap wood around the home, keeping substructures dry and well ventilated, and finishing exterior wood with...